Cyber Idol Pretty Cure
by CureAgeha
Summary: WonderWorld is a popular social media site which also serves as a junction between human world and fairy world. However, one day an evil force called Infinity hacked into its server and uses it to spread misery. The fairies have no choice but to seek for the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure's help. Can the Cyber Idol Pretty Cure meet up their expectation and save both worlds?
1. Episode 1

**Gokigenyo! Ageha here, and this is my first fanfic in Precure fandom. The first episode ends up a lot longer than I expected, but I hope you'll enjoy the story nevertheless :)**

 **English isn't my first language so you might find some grammatical mistakes / typos. Feel free to point them out. Corrections are always welcome n_n**

 **Enjoy :D**

 **Disclaimer: Pretty Cure (c) TOEI Animation.**

 **[Edited version: March 2016]**

* * *

 **Episode 1**

 **Log In to Your Heart! Birth of a Pretty Cure!**

 _WonderWorld,_ or _W2_ in short, is a new social media site which uses RPG-like interface, allowing the users navigating around the site using their own unique avatar as if their avatar is exploring a whole new world. It's well liked by young people due its cute appearance and handiness as all-in-one site which provides a lot of entertainment such as video hosting, games, forums and blogs. Despite its raising popularity worldwide, no one knows who created this site and where it comes from.

 _Ssshh…_ the secret is, WonderWorld is actually a junction between two worlds, the human world and the fairy world, and this site is run by friendly fairies from Binary Kingdom. The fairies oversee the human world through the small screens, and provide support to those in needs. Their task is to make sure that all humans can live a happy life.

 _But then an evil force slowly approaches WonderWorld…_

* * *

 _Pii-pii-pii-pii-pii!_ An annoying sound echoed through the small bedroom.

A girl in her teenage softly groaned as she stirred under the blanket and reached out to the bedside table. She tapped the wooden surface several times, searching for the source of noise. After some struggle sweeping through the items on the messy table, knocking down some plushies in process, she finally found the rectangular device she was looking for: her phone. She frowned as she forced her sleepy eyes to read at the digital clock shown on the bright screen.

"It's already 7, huh?" Usami Reina muttered while dismissing the alarm. She actually reaaallly wanted to go back to sleep, as she only had around five hours of sleep and still feeling very tired. However, if she ever dared to close her eyes here and now, she would surely be late for school and made the teachers angry.

Mustering her willpower, the girl got up and stretched her body. She yawned widely as she forced her body to leave the warm bed. She took her glasses from the end table and looked around. The room was dimly lighted by the sunlight that passed through the curtain. Even without opening the curtain, she could already tell it was sunny outside; and probably pretty fine weather too.

She would have called it _nice morning_ if only she hadn't been suffering from lack of sleep.

Her attention was then caught by a white laptop lying open on the desk beside her. A wry smile crossed her face as she recalled how she ended up staying up late the night before. It had been due some chat she had had with her online friends on WonderWorld site. Well, the chat had been fun, but it hadn't been anything important so basically she had missed her _beauty sleep_ just for a pointless fun and she kind of regretted it now.

She really needed to sort her priority right.

Sighing, she gently pushed down the rim of screen to close her laptop and then return to her morning routine.

* * *

After ten minutes, Reina was done changing into her school uniform and had neatly braided her long purple hair. She exited her bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen. Her house was usually quiet in the morning because her aunt she had been living with was a very busy person and usually went to work very early. Reina was used to this, finding nothing but a simple note pinned on the fridge stating when her aunt would get home on that certain day and what the older woman had prepared for Reina's breakfast, lunch, etc.

'… _There was an emergency call so I didn't have time to prepare your lunchbox today. There are some ingredients in the fridge but in case you don't feel like cooking I also left behind some money…'_

"I'll guess I'll be having some sandwiches in the canteen for lunch." Reina shrugged as she tossed aside the note. It wasn't like she didn't feel like cooking, it's just that preparing lunchbox needed a lot of time and she didn't think it could be done in time for school if she only started now. That's why, instead of wasting time on it she decided that she should just focus on making her breakfast.

She looked around the kitchen. There was some bread so she decided to toast them and cook a sunny side up. She arranged her breakfast on a plate and put it on the table. She then poured cold milk into a glass and placed it beside the plate. After moving the plate and glass around several times and adding a fork into the picture, she finally felt satisfied with the arrangement. She took her phone and took several photos of her breakfast. She picked a best shot then uploaded it right away to her W2 blog.

 **[Today's menu is western styled, sunny side up toast *heart*]**

Smiling in content with her handy works, she finally put aside her phone and ate her breakfast. "Let's dig in." She softly said as she took the first bite.

Some minutes later, her phone started vibrating from new notifications. Still chewing her food, she took the phone with her free hand and started reading the messages.

 _ **[Wow, it looks so delicious!]**_

 _ **[Western styled? How lucky. We only have miso soup over here. I want something like that to for a change :( ]**_

 _ **[Good, but not enough for a bait. You should have added bacon :P ]**_

Reina smiled as she read her _friends'_ comments on her new post.

 **[It IS delicious ;) ]** She replied to the first comment.

 **[Aww, *pats you* I'll let you have a bite then :O]** Was her reply to the second one.

She wasn't sure how to reply to the third one so she just left it as it was for now and get back to it later… well, maybe.

To be honest, she knew that her food wasn't anything special, but doing something like this somehow just raised her mood. It was nice to talk to someone in the morning even though it was just an exchange of silly comments. It successfully drove away her sleepiness and made her breakfast more fun.

This was Reina's way to start the day.

* * *

Kanazono is a small seaside town. Reina's school, Toumei Private Senior High School located just next to the beach. One could see a beautiful sea view from the road she usually took. The air was also clean with a tinge of sea salt taste. Under a nice whether like today, the short trip to school could become a nice energizing walk. It was something that would make one thinks that today would be a great day.

But then again, it might not make much impact if one had seen the same scenery for hundreds times. At least that was the case for Reina. She had been attending the same school for years that the sea view had become pretty dull for her, so Instead of admiring the scene, she would just look down at something more interesting, which was her phone.

"Morning!" Someone suddenly tapped her shoulder and greeted cheerfully.

Reina was startled with the sudden body contact. She quickly looked up from her phone and turned to the person who had just greeted her. On her left side, stood a classmate of hers; a short haired girl with a wide cattish smile. Reina recalled that the name was Nekoyama… something.

"Good morning, um, Nekoyama." Reina replied hesitantly.

Nekoyama stared at Reina's face and tilted her head. "Why do you look so low spirited? You shouldn't be mourning so early in the morning!"

Reina blinked several times as she tried to process Nekoyama's word play. Not sure how to reply to the joke, she could only give an awkward reply to her classmate. "Uh… I guess I'm just still a bit sleepy."

Nekoyama furrowed her brows slightly; probably feeling a little disappointed by Reina's bland reaction to her puns. But then she quickly wiped off that expression and returned to her cheerful persona. "Well then, see you in class, Usagi!"

Reina's brow twitched as Nekoyama called her with a wrong name. She could only stared at Nekoyama's back as the latter ran ahead to greet other students. She sighed heavily. She just wasn't good at handling overly cheerful people like Nekoyama. She already felt tired just by exchanging greetings with that girl.

Reina sighed once again before she held up her phone and returned her attention to it. Actually, she had the option to greet some classmates in front of her instead of playing with her phone, but the thought of approaching them first just make her feel more uneasy so she decided to just keep looking down at her phone, pretending that she didn't notice their presence.

Reina accessed W2 site and browsed through the notice board to look for some interesting news or update since she hadn't had the chance to do that earlier. She then visited her friends' pages and read their new entries. Once in a while she would leave a comment on their posts, just like how they had done on hers earlier. She also got back to her homepage to check on some unread messages in the virtual mailbox. She remembered that there was a comment on her breakfast post that she hadn't replied yet. It was a tricky one to reply, so she needed to think her words thoroughly and retyped her reply several times before she finally pushed the send button.

 _This_ was one of the reasons why she preferred texting over verbal communication: she could take her sweet time thinking of the best way to rephrase her thought before presenting it to the other party.

Several minutes and a couple of message exchanges later, a strange message showed up her inbox. It caught her attention because the title said _ **[HELP WANTED]**_ _,_ written in capitalized letter. She raised a brow, wondering what it was about. However, just as she was about to open the message, a teacher with huge build suddenly appeared before her and she almost bumped into him.

"No phone allowed during school hour." The teacher said sternly. His expression clearly indicated that he was unimpressed on how the girl had been too absorbed with the little device in her hand and failed to notice his presence until they had been only a meter away from each other.

"Oh... Right. I'm sorry." Reina quickly apologized. She shoved her phone into her pocket and bowed to him.

The teacher glared at the top of her head for a while before he finally turned away and entered the classroom. Sensing that he had already gone, she slowly straightened her back and sighed in relief.

To think that she would have run into a scary teacher like Mr. Sanada early in the morning and had gotten scolded even before the class started yet…

She must have a bad luck today.

* * *

Reina usually stick to her commitment _not_ to check on her phone during class, but today she wasn't able to focus on the lesson as the phone in her pocket kept bugging her from time to time.

'Strange,' she thought. She was sure she had turned off the notification just before Mr. Sanada's literature class began. She couldn't help wondering what was wrong with it and her mind trailed off to that one strange message she hadn't gotten the chance to read earlier. What was that about? Could it be all of these notifications came from that message? Perhaps… Perhaps she should just take a short look at it. Surely the teacher wouldn't noti-

"Hey you!"

Her heart skipped a beat as the loud, familiar voice rang through the room. She quickly dismissed the thought of secretly checking her phone as she watched Mr. Sanada scolding her classmate for dozing off in class.

"Hey, isn't Mr. Sanada just too much?" One student whispered to another.

"I know right? We can't help that his class is just too boring," Said the other in low voice.

"That reminds me. I once forgot to bring my homework and he made me redo everything four times-"

The conversation was cut off when the teacher suddenly looked away from the student he was scolding and gazed at the rest of the class with skeptical look. It was so scary that no one dared to say a word until the class ended.

* * *

Reina excused herself to the restroom as soon as the morning class ended. She went inside one of the empty cubicles and closed the door behind her. She fished out her phone as she leaned her back to the door and then turned on the screen.

She read how she had received a lot of reminder notifications about _that certain unread message._

She couldn't help getting more intrigued by that message, but at the same time she also felt a bit scared to open it. What was it about? Why did it look so urgent?

She took a deep breath then pressed the open button. She held her breath as she read the head of the message.

 _ **Title: HELP WANTED  
Sender: Administrator Ultra**_

"An admin?" Reina knitted her brow as she read the sender's information. What in the world would an admin want from a normal user like her? Curious, she continued reading the message.

 _ **HELP WANTED**_

 _ **Dear Ms. [REINA],**_

 _ **Thank you for your continued support to WonderWorld. Along with this message, we have to regretfully inform you that WonderWorld is undergoing some issue at the moment and we need your assistance to resolve it.**_

 _ **Please click [Proceed] if you're willing to go with this; otherwise, please delete this message within 24 hours.**_

Providing help regarding the site issue, huh? The girl wondered what it was about. W2 looked just fine to her, but since one of the admins had gone to a length to request assistance from users, she supposed there was really something that could only be done by her.

She shrugged and without a second thought, clicked the **[Proceed]** button.

A loading screen appeared then suddenly went blank. It scared her for a bit when she thought that the phone might have just crashed. After a while, much to her relief, something appeared in the middle on the screen. She recognized it as a kind of user avatar from W2. The avatar was drawn in cutesy style; it had pale purple body, fluffy dark purple fur balls as his ears and tail, and several magenta heart-shaped marks on his face. It also wore a short magenta cape around its neck with a heart golden broach on the front.

The avatar sat in the middle of the screen, appeared to be sleeping. He then slowly opened his eyes and looked at Reina. It blinked several times before a huge smile bloomed on his cute face.

" _Piku!"_

She jolted in surprise as a small squeak-like voice came out the speaker.

"Um… **[REINA],** isn't it?" The avatar spoke up. "My name is **[Pixel]**. Starting from today I'll be your partner. Nice to meet you!"

The said girl was lost for words. She hadn't expected that the avatar would be able to talk to her. What was this thing, exactly? Was it a sort of game? A virtual pet game? Or was it a new navigator feature for the site?

Reina scowled as she couldn't figure out what it was and what she was supposed to do with it. She tapped around the screen in hope that she would find a lead. She expected there would be a hidden menu button somewhere but nothing happened. She tried again, this time tapping right on Pixel. Perhaps the menu would happen if she could trigger an interaction with him.

"H- hey, what are you doing?" Pixel looked bewildered when she tapped on stomach repeatedly.

Reina didn't stop despite his complain. Instead, she began tapping on different body parts such as the heart marks on his forehead and ears to see if there would be different reaction.

"Oww! Oww! Stop!" The avatar yelped as if it really felt a pain. "I… said… STOP!"

 _Whoosh!_ Something suddenly crashed onto Reina face and everything became pitch black for a moment. She lost her balance and fell on her butt.

" _Geeeeez!"_

She heard Pixel's voice, but this time was much clearer than before.

Rubbing her aching nose she slowly opened her eyes.

And then she saw a plushie which looked exactly like Pixel, hovering in the air.

"Ky- AAAAHHHH!" She instinctively shrieked.

"SSSHHH!" Pixel swiftly flew toward her and covered her mouth. "You're too loud!"

She could feel how his small hands were pressed against her lips and they were just… they felt so real!

"What… are you?" she asked hesitantly. The thing before her eyes was certainly a being she could physically touch, unlike a mere projected hologram.

After making sure she wouldn't scream anymore, he step back then sat on her knees. "I'm Pixel. A fairy from **[Binary Kingdom]**."

"Fairy? Binary?" She tried to repeat his words but they just didn't register in her mind.

"To put in simply, I came from a fairy world located on the other side of WonderWorld." He tried to explain.

"W- WonderWorld?" She suddenly remembered about the site and the strange message she had received. "That request…"

"Right! It's good that you can catch up quickly!" The fairy paused for a while and cleared his throat before he started his explanation. "You see, WonderWorld is actually a bridge that connects the human world with our world. We fairies from Binary Kingdom have a sacred duty to look over human's life through WonderWorld and protect their happiness. However, one day an evil group called **[Infinity]** suddenly appeared and hacked into our server. They slipped into WonderWorld and infected it with malice power to spread missery into the human world. It's just really terrible! We have to stop them at any cost and for that, we need your power!"

Silence filled the room as Pixel finished his story. He stared at the girl intently, waiting for her reaction. He was a bit worried that it might be too complex for her to grasp. She seemed like a smart girl, but the concept of other world should be a whole new thing to her. He couldn't blame her if she couldn't process all of the information at once.

"I… see. I… get it now." Reina finally opened her mouth and spoke slowly.

His round eyes sparkled with hope as soon as he heard her reply. "Y- You do?" It was beyond his expectation that she would have understood so easily.

"Seems like I'm starting seeing things due the lack of sleep…" She said as she held her head and glanced sideway.

Pixel comically fell down and cried out in desperation. "NO, THAT'S NOT IT!" He scratched his head and spun around in the air. This was harder than he had expected. Let alone understanding about Binary Kingdom and WonderWorld's real form, this girl was even still in denial about his existence and everything that had happened before her own eyes.

The little fairy sighed heavily; this would take time just to convince her that everything was _real._ He folded his arms and started raking his brain to find a better way to explain the circumstance to her... and make her believe that he was, indeed, real.

The two of them stared at each other in silence. One minute, two minutes… time passed without anyone saying anything. Occasionally, Pixel would open his mouth, but then he quickly shut it tight again. He was still struggling to find the right words.

Reina herself didn't know what to do. Everything seemed unreal to her to the point she started thinking that this might be just a dream.

It _had_ to be a dream.

This fairly before her could not possibly exist. It hadn't just popped out from her phone. No, there was no way something like this could have happened in real world. This was not some game where one could summon an item out of thin air… not to mention the ground had started shaking and her ears could picked up faint sounds of people's scream.

This was just so wrong; it couldn't be real...

Reina was too preoccupied with her own thought that she failed to notice the change in Pixel's expression.

"Earthquake? No, this bad feeling is…" The fairy scowled as he eyed the door behind Reina. He then quickly rose up, flew passed her head and slipped through the gap between the ceiling and the top of toilet's stall.

"Wha-" Reina was a second late to realize that Pixel had gone from her sight. "Wait!"

She ran after the fairy to the hallway. At first she was worried about what would happened if Pixel got seen by the other students, but it turned out no one even paid attention to the flying stuffed-animal-like creature. Everyone's attention was stolen by something else. They all gathered by the windows and some of them even had their phone out to record whatever was happening outside. Curious, she peeked through the small gaps in crowd and there she saw… a huge, two-stories tall monster was rampaging on the school ground.

"Shiraneeeeeee!" The monster's cried out as it smashed the ground, leaving huge crater.

Reina took a step back and turned around.

"Wait, where are you going?" Pixel asked as he saw Reina's sudden detour.

"…Infirmary. There's definitely something _wrong_ with my head."

"Wait, wait! REINA! Stop being in denial! You've got to do something about this!" He pulled one of her braids in attempt to stop her.

"Owww!" She cringed in pain and tried to shake him off. "It hurts! Let me go!"

Despite her complain, he kept pulling her hair and use it just like a leash to drag her to the opposite direction.

* * *

A red haired man in black suit stood at the top of the fence. At first glance, he looked like a normal, high-class business man, but one would realize right away that something was off with him. His face looked so thrilled while he was watching the monster destroying everything.

"Good! Good! Keep it up, boy. Destroy everything!" He said, laughing maniacally.

"Shiraneeeeeeeeee!" The monster cried as it obeyed the man's command and smashed more trees.

"Hahahaha!"

….

Several meters away from them, two shadows sneaked behind the bushes.

"Just as I thought, it's the Infinity." Pixel grimaced. "To think that they've made such a bold move… things might have gone worse than we've predicted."

"Just what is that thing?" Reina whispered as she crouched down beside the fairy. Not even in her wildest dream she had ever hoped she would have witness something as absurd as this. Wait, this was a dream, right? Or it wasn't? God, it was just so confusing!

"That, is a **[Shiranee]** ," Pixel said as he pointed at the monster. "They're monster that was born from human's misery."

Now that she could see the monster up close, Reina noticed that the monster looked like a gigantic textbook that had somehow grown legs and claw-like hands. It also got a face with a pair of big, yellow droppy eyes on the front cover. There was a red X mark on its forehead.

Such a ridiculous looking monster.

"And that man, he is from Infinity," Pixel continued. "He's the one controlling the monster."

Reina shift her attention to the red haired weirdo. Indeed it looked like the monster obeyed to his commands.

"No one come, huh? This is no fun." The red haired villain muttered. He then looked at the school building and narrowed his eyes. His lips curved, forming an evil smile. He called out to the monster as he pointed at the building. "Shiranee, destroy the school!"

Reina gasped as she covered her mouth. 'What? But everyone's still there!' She thought in horror.

"This is bad!" Pixel panicked seeing the monster had started moving toward the school building. He quickly turned to Reina and pleaded. "You have to stop it!"

"What? How?" She was flabbergasted.

Pixel grabbed on her collar. "There's no other choice than to fight!"

"What? Fight? That's impossible! I can't!"

"Yes you can! No, to be exact, _only you_ can! The reason why you were chosen was because you're-"

Pixel's word was cut when suddenly a shadow was casted upon them.

" _Ho? Looks like we've got a company here…"_

The red haired Infinity suddenly appeared before them. Reina instinctively grabbed Pixel and hold him against her chest.

The man looked really pleased as he noticed how her face had lost its color. His eyes narrowed into slits. "You don't have to be so scared, young lady. I won't hurt you as long as you listen to what I say." He bent down, slowly enclosing the distant between him and Reina, then reached out his hand toward her.

Reina's mind urged her to run away from this man, from this _nightmare_ , but her legs had suddenly lost their strength.

"Now, come here..." His words were sweet but latched with poison.

She held her breath as his hand got closer and closer to her face…

Pixel then suddenly jumped out and headbutted the man's chin.

"OW!" The man groaned in pain as he took a step back. He rubbed his chin and glared at the thing that had just crashed into his face.

"I won't let you lay a finger on her!" Pixel shouted at the man. He then turned to Reina and urged her to retreat. "Run! I'll hold him back somehow so you should get back first and tell everyone to run away!"

"But-"

"GO!"

"A fairy, huh? So the Fairy Queen has finally made her move," The man chuckled as he rubbed his chin. "But it's too late!" He suddenly charged at the fairy, swung his fist and hit Pixel.

"Pixel!" Reina screamed as she saw Pixel's small body was sent flying.

"Hmph, what can you possibly do with that useless body." The man scorned. He then smiled sadistically as he turned to Reina. "This girl, as well as all this world, we'll drown them in misery."

"Don't!" Pixel forced his body to stand up then run toward the man. He jumped and hopped on the man's head and started pulling his red hair.

"You're annoying!" The man grunted as he tried to pull Pixel away. He grabbed the fairy's body then slammed it onto the ground. "Fine then, if you want me to finish you so badly." He then raised his foot and kicked the fairy.

"Stop it!" Reina threw herself to catch Pixel then secured the fairy in her arms as she slide on the ground.

The man was slightly taken aback when he saw her action, but quickly regained his composure as he gazed coldly the girl, who by now had been covered with bruises and dirt. "I thought you're supposed to run away. Why did you stay and throw yourself just to save that useless fairy?"

Reina gritted her teeth as she tried to pull herself together and faced the evil man. "Of course I wanted run away... If possible I'd get away from this place as fast as possible but…. I just can't leave this kid alone, can I?!"

She was really scared. A monster went on rampage on her school, a cruel and heartless evil man who found joy in torturing others… This was just crazy she wished it had really been just a bad dream. However, she couldn't just run away and pretend that everything was a mere illusion, not when Pixel getting hurt from trying to protect her.

"Tell me, Pixel…" She whispered on the fairy's ear. "What am I supposed to do? How should I fight this?"

"Reina…" Pixel widened his eyes then his gaze softened as he smiled. "Thank you." The fairy then took off the heart broach from his cape. "Quick, give me your phone."

She did what he told her and gave him her phone. He then placed his broach on the top of the phone and it glowed. The phone's shape changed as the two items merged into one. Her originally black phone turned into white, with a pink heart gem replacing the home button; there was also a golden heart emblem similar to the broach's design on its back.

"With this, you can fight as a legendary warrior, **[Pretty Cure]**." Pixel said.

"Pretty… Cure?" She repeated his words as she stared at the glowing phone in her hand.

"What are you guys mumbling about? Moreover, what was that light?" The red haired man shouted in annoyance. He could feel that something would happen if he let them stay like that. The man charged at them and tried to take the suspicious glowing item, but then it suddenly shone brighter and formed a barrier around Reina and Pixel. "ARGH!" He groaned as he was thrown back.

Reina closed her eyes as the light enveloped her body. Suddenly her body became so light that it felt as if she had been floating in the air. She felt something soft and light, like silk ribbons, touched her skin and wrapped parts of her body. The pain from her wounds also disappeared gradually.

Her eyes fluttered open as her foot touched the ground. She didn't know how, she was supposed to be lying on the ground, but after the strange floating sensation, she suddenly found herself already standing on her two feet.

"What is this?" She muttered as she looked at her hands. By the time she came to her sense, her appearance had completely changed. She was now wearing a flashy looking pink and white one piece dress, with a pink heart broach on her left chest. Her outfit was compiled with a pair of black tights, white boots and black leather gloves. Her hair also changed into light purple color and is arranged in high fluffy twin tails. They were so long but they didn't feel heavy at all. It was as if her hair was made of cotton.

"How did you?" The red haired Infinity was bewildered seeing how the girl before him just literally transformed. Moreover, this girl gave off a really different vibes from before. She was so different to the point he suddenly sensed threats coming from her. He quickly stepped back and called out to his underling monster. "Shiranee! Go get her!"

"Shiraneeee!" The monster changed its track then charged toward Reina.

She stepped one foot behind to form a defensive stance. The monster threw a punch with its right hand. It was very fast and powerful, but somehow she was just able to see it coming and dodged it in time. The monster used its other hand to make a swiping move and aimed at her stomach; once again she was able to see it and successfully blocked it. She jumped back, somersaulted then landed on the top of the fence.

Her body felt really light. Her vision, physical ability and agility had increased so significantly that it made her feel that she was in someone else's body. She tightened her fists. _This just might work_.

The book-shaped monster ran toward her. It tried to attack her again, but she jumped into the air as soon as it almost hit her. The monster lost its balance and she used the chance to counter attack. She repeatedly kicked its face then once it was about to fall, she punched it as hard as she could to knock it down.

"Shiranee…" The monster growled.

"Yosh, just a little more." Reina said to herself. But then, just as she was about to launch another attack, she suddenly heard a weak voice.

"… _listen to me…"_

She looked around to find the source of the voice, but it was neither Pixel nor the Infinity guy.

" _They just won't listen to me…"_

"Huh? Don't tell me…" She looked down at the monster. Could it be that the voice came from it?

" _My students just won't listen me. Even though it's actually for their sake… I want them to study properly so that they can grow up into fine adults but… All they do are fooling around. They keep doing things halfway and I always end up scolding them for that. In the end, it just makes them drift away from me. What should I do? Why can't I reach out to them? I'm such a failure for a teacher."_

"What is this feeling?" Reina clenched her fist on the top of her chest. Somehow it hurt. Listening to this voice pained her heart.

"That's misery." Pixel said as he fly to her side. He, too, had a pained expression on his face. "Infinity takes advantage of human's negative emotion. They cause people to drown in sorrow and turn them into Shiranee."

Upon hearing his explanation, she turned at the Shiranee in horror. "You mean, this monster is actually a human? Moreover, one of the teachers?"

"Teacher, huh? I remember that useless old man did refer himself something like that. Well, it doesn't matter anymore, right? He has given up on it anyway." The red haired Infinity commander cackled.

The monster wailed. Reina bit her lips hearing its heartbreaking voice. They must be hurting inside. This was just so cruel. Her teacher had done their best for the students yet Infinity trampled over their feelings.

"Don't laugh." She muttered under her breath as she glared at the red head.

He shifted his attention and looked down at her. "Come again?"

"You don't have the right to laugh at someone else's hard work!" She snapped.

"Ha? Hard work? Hh, all he did was complaining though." He sneered.

"That's not true! Mr. Teacher had a high dream for his student, that's why he blamed himself when he's unable to meet his own expectation." She then turned to the Shiranee and shouted at it. "Also, this is not time to feel down! Don't you know what situation we're facing? The students must be scared after seeing such commotion. Shouldn't you be at their side to calm them down and guide them? Please hang in there, Mr. Teacher!"

"Hmph, as if your words can reach it. Crush her, Shiranee!" The red head Infinity shouted as he pointed his finger at Reina. However, much to his surprise, Shiranee didn't budge and ignore his order. "Huh? Why?" He looked at Shiranee in bewilderment.

"Her words actually reached!" Pixel exclaimed as he saw the monster's strange behavior. He quickly turned to her. "It's your chance! You have to purify the monster to return the teacher to his original state."

"Purify- but how?"

Just as Reina questioned about it, the heart gem on her chest suddenly felt warm and glowed. Words suddenly came into her head and somehow, she _just knew_ exactly what to do.

She clasped her hands on her chest. She closed her eyes and started chanting. "Sadness, pain, and worries… I'll embrace all of them!" She shot her eyes open and spread her arms. " **[Precure Dramatic Synchronize!]** "

Ray of light appeared and shot through Shiranee. Light then covered it; its size gradually become smaller and turned into a human figure. The figure slumped into the ground as the light slowly faded away.

"What? It was Mr. Sanada all along?" Reina was surprised when she recognized the stern teacher's face.

"Tsk! I didn't expect this." The red haired Infinity frowned as he witnessed his monster got purified. "Girl, just what on earth are you?"

Reina turned and looked straight at the man's red eyes. She didn't realize since when she had stopped feeling intimidated by him. She breathed calmly and then, just like when she had been about to purify the monster, words just came into her mind.

 _"I am…_ _ **[Cure Actor]**_ _."_

* * *

 **That's it! I hope you're satisfied with the first episode n_n Tbh, I'm not used with referring a chapter as episode, but since I saw people used episode instead of chapter here and made the chapter feel like an actual anime episode, I thought I'd also try it out (that's why this become so long since I needed to end the episode with something dramatic).**

 **Hope you like the story so far. Please review and tell me what do you think of the story and the characters, especially Reina/Actor. Concrits are always welcome :D**

 **Oh, speaking of which, Cure Actor has become a kind of mascot cure in a certain pretty cure site/forum called "Pretty Cure Forum". Please check it out as well if you have time :D**

 **See you!**


	2. Episode 2

**Gokigenyo! The second episode is finally up. Sorry for the long wait.**

 **Again, my English isn't perfect so I apologize for any typos and grammatical mistakes you might find in this particular episode.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **[Edited version: March 2016]**

* * *

 **Episode 2**

 **You are you! What's Important is to Stay True to Yourself!**

 _Pii-pii-pii-pii-pii!_

Reina was awakened by the familiar noise. The girl slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly at the white ceiling.

"A dream..?" She muttered.

Her eyes still felt heavy. 'Mm, just 5 more minutes…' she mentally said to herself as she couldn't resist the drowsiness and slowly closed her eyes again.

Just then her phone suddenly rang again, but with different kind of noise. "Good morning! Rise and shine!"

Reina groaned as she covered her head with the blanked to block the sound. _So noisy_.

"Wake up!" With a soft pop, Pixel came out from the phone. He landed on top of her and started tugging the blanket. "Waaake uuuuup~~!"

After a short tugging war, Pixel finally managed to pull off the blanket. Without the blanket blocking her vision, she was now face to face with the noisy, plushie-like fairy, who hovering in the air above her.

She stared at him for a while before she suddenly raised her arm and grabbed the startled Pixel. She pinched his checks and felt its texture that was surprisingly elastic and soft, almost like a baby's skin. On the top of that, it felt _real_. "It's not… a dream."

"Owowow- Of course it's not! Geez, just how long do you plan to keep denial of my presence?" The fairy said as got away from her and then rubbed his hurting cheeks.

"Sorry, sorry." She chuckled as she got up.

Right, after everything that had happened yesterday… If it had been a dream, t would have been strange if she could still every single detail of it: Pretty Cure, monster and Infinity.

… _._

" _Cure Actor?"_

 _The red haired man cladded in black suit muttered the name under his breath._

" _She's the legendary warrior, Pretty Cure! We won't let you do as you please, Infinity!" Pixel shouted as he hovered beside Reina, who was in Cure Actor form._

" _Legendary warrior, Pretty Cure, huh?" The man repeated slowly and then turned around. He raised a hand and a black tall hat suddenly appeared out of the thin air. He put it on his head then glanced coldly toward Actor and Pixel. "The name is_ _ **[Tvo]**_ _. Consider you're lucky this time. Next time will be your end."_

…

"Say, Pixel…" Reina began as she looked down at her now-white-and-beautifully-decorated phone, the **[CureVice]** in her hand. "What is Infinity? Why are they attacking us?"

"I'm not pretty sure myself." Pixel frowned. "No one knows, even the Queen herself, what they actually are, or what they are up to. By the time we realize there was something wrong with WonderWorld, they had completely infected the server. We can't reach out to your world like we used to be. The human world is slowly getting engulfed in misery and our world has also been severely damaged because of this."

The little fairy put his hands on top of hers then looked at her. "Please, Reina, lend us your power!" He pleaded. "We fairies don't stand a chance against them. Only the Pretty Cure can fight against them! Only _you_ can!"

The two looked into each other's eyes. Her mouth opened slowly as she began, "Why? Why _me_? I mean, there's nothing special about me. Why did I even get chosen?"

"You see, we've been looking for humans who are able to send through positive energy, _happiness_ , to others with WonderWorld, and you're one of them!" He explained.

"Me? _Happiness_?"

Pixel nodded. "Yes, I've been monitoring your activity on WonderWorld for a quite some time. You are a kind soul. You have a lot of friends, and I noticed how much you cared about them. From your words, I can see you always think of the other party's feeling before replying. When they're down, you always encourage them. You might have not noticed it, but you've saved a lot of people from drowning in sadness."

Reina's face reddened because of the unexpected praises coming from him. "I- It's not like that… I was just, talking, chatting with them to kill some free time."

"Yesterday you were able to transform into a Pretty Cure and heard Shiranee's-, no, the victim's **[inner voice]**. That's the proof of your capability to link your heart with theirs and reach out to them."

"I see…" Reina replied quietly. She felt bashful hearing how high this little fairy was thinking of her. Felling that she couldn't bear to continue this kind of conversation, she hurriedly stood up and got away from him while muttering, "I'm going to be late for school."

Pixel watched the girl preoccupying herself with school preparation and running around the room. He tilted his head and mumbled. "Although… you seem kinda different from what I imagined you'd be..."

* * *

Reina still couldn't completely grasp what a Pretty Cure was capable of, but it seemed like purifying a Shiranee didn't only destroy the monster but also affected the victim's heart… in a good way. The infamous grumpy teacher, Mr. Sanada, seemed to be really in a good mood today. He hadn't scolded her for being barely on time for class (no she wasn't late, but the usual him would have still scolded her and given her long lecture about how a student was supposed to arrive at least fifteen minutes before the class began so that she would have time to prepare her mind and so on). He didn't give the students who had forgotten to do their homework as many detentions as he would normally do either (two copies of the homework instead of four by the end of the school hour).

She overheard the boys whispering about how he might have hit his head during the commotion yesterday.

Mr. Sanada also gave a quite surprising assignment which had the students working in pair to create a presentation of their own interpretation of any Japanese literature of the students' choice. He had never given such assignment before as he normally would just give long boring lecture and mountain of homework aftermath.

Whatever had happened to this teacher, the students were very pleased with the current Mr. Sanada because, yes, for once, they weren't forced undergo boring lecture.

This, however, become quite troublesome for Reina. As a loner, finding a partner to work with was a pretty difficult task for her. Most of her classmates had formed partnership right away as a normal student would at least have one person whom they were close to, but clearly that didn't apply to her.

 _Eh, maybe she shouldn't have saved him._

Reina sighed as she shook off that bad thought and turned around to look for a partner. There should be at least one person who had trouble finding partner just like her.

There.

Several seats away from her desk, Reina spotted a long haired girl who was secluded from the rest of her classmates. The girl kept looking down on her notebook instead of trying to talk to their classmates.

' _Here goes nothing.'_

"Hey," Reina called out as she approached the silent girl. "Do you have a partner yet? Would you like to work with me?"

The girl was startled. She quickly looked up to Reina. Her eyes were barely visible, obstructed by her dark blue fringes. "No-, er, I mean, yes. Yes, of course. I'd love to. Thank you." She stuttered.

"Ah, nah…" Reina replied awkwardly. It seemed this girl was also socially awkward like her, if not worse. "Um, should we start then? Where do you want to do it? Here? Or over there on my desk?"

The girl looked around. It was pretty crowded since several classmates had been sitting around them. "Over there, I guess…" she squeaked.

"Right." Reina sighed. She then turned around and return to her desk. Her partner hurriedly gathered her pen and notebook and followed the former.

"Well then, Inuma, what should we pick?" Reina began after they both sat down.

"Ummm, anything's fine with me." Inuma said meekly.

Reina resisted an urge to roll her eyes. Seemed like Inuma wouldn't be stating her opinion actively in this. Reina wasn't really fond of taking initiative but this might take look if she didn't. She flipped through her textbook to find any story that looked easy to cover.

"What about this?" Reina suggested as showed her textbook to Inuma.

Inuma took a look at the book. "I'm good with it." She said after she read the title.

'Well, I guess she'll be good with anything.' Reina thought.

"I quite like this story, actually." Inuma added, much to Reina's surprise.

"You've read this before?" Reina asked, slightly taken aback. "That's good… I guess."

"Y- yeah, I like reading…" Inuma said bashfully.

Their partnership went better than Reina had expected. They advanced pretty fast thanks to Inuma's knowledge about the story they were covering: a modern literature entitled _'I am a Cat'_.

As time passed by, Inuma became more active and started giving ideas.

"Um, what about making the presentation in unusual way that's easier to understand? Like a short manga for example… you know, with shorter dialogues that are easier to understand. The main character is a cat so I think it'll be cute…"

Reina tapped her chin and thought. "I think it's a pretty good idea. It'll be pretty handful work remembering we only have a week, but it will definitely look more interesting than a regular presentation."

"As for the drawings, um…" Inuma sounded hesitate as she twirled the blue pen in her hand.

"Oh right… I guess it'll be too hard to draw the comic ourselves. What about finding some pictures online and editing them to match the story? Well, the result might not be as good as a real manga but I think it'll suffice."

"…I guess you're right."

Reina raised an eyebrow at Inuma's restrained reply. It looked as if Inuma wasn't satisfied with her statement. She waited for a while, in case Inuma might want to add anything, but the latter said nothing.

"That's decided then." Reina finally said. She glanced at the clock; it's almost time for the class to end and so did her discussion with Inuma. All that's left was assigning tasks. "Inuma, since you know the story better than I do, can you do the rough plotting first? In the meantime I'll look for usable pictures for the characters and setting. We'll assemble the materials and start working on it tomorrow after class."

"Okay." The corner of Inuma's lips curved upward, forming a small smile. The trace of gloom Reina had seen earlier was no more. Was she just seeing thing?

The bell then rang, indicating that the class had ended.

"Oh, I've gotta go. See you later, Usami." Inuma hurriedly got up and returned to her seat.

Reina leaned back as watched the other girl walked back to her seat. Well, everything went more smoothly that she had expected. Inuma had looked sort of strange at times as if she had been holding back, but Reina decided to shook off that bad thought. She figured that both of them were introverts and communication wasn't their forte. It surely would get better next time.

* * *

The afternoon class finally ended.

Reina stretched her back then leaned forward. She exhaled deeply.

With the exclusion of Mr. Sanada's sudden change, school had been pretty much the same as usual. It was as if yesterday incident had never happened. Some students did talk about the monster that had suddenly appeared on the school ground, but seemed like no one knew how it had get there, or how it had disappeared later on without leaving any trace of destruction. There had been no witness except Mr. Sanada who had been found unconscious later on the scene after the monster had disappeared. He didn't seem to recall much about the incident though… which was really good for Reina as it would cause a trouble if people found out how she had transformed into a super hero… well, sort of.

Reina gathered her belongings, getting ready to go home. She then noticed that there was a notebook on her desk that didn't belong to her.

"Huh? This isn't mine." She looked around to find its owner, however, half of her classmate had gone home and none of the remaining ones looked like they were looking for it.

The CureVice in her pocket then suddenly buzzed. She took it out and saw Pixel in avatar form on the screen. It seemed like he wanted to say something so she connected an earphone to the CureVice and then tucked one of its ends to her left ear.

"It probably belongs to your literature partner." Pixel said from the other side of the line.

"Oh!" Realization suddenly came to her. She recalled how Inuma had brought a notebook over to her desk. That girl must have accidentally left it there.

Reina was about to thank the fairy when another realization came to her. "Wait, how did you know- Were you listening the whole time?"

"Well…" Pixel began. "I wanted to know you better so I figure I should just follow your daily life. Besides, I also want to know how people at school are doing after Infinity's attack yesterday."

"Is that so?" She deadpanned. Geez, he could have told her earlier. Now it felt like he had violated her privacy. "So? What did you find?"

"There were several posts made regarding the incident, but everyone's recovering from the shock in pretty fast pace, which is good. Also, it seems like no one finds out your secret, which is also great... It's just that…" Pixel trailed.

Reina looked at the small Pixel on the screen. " _It's just that?_ " She repeated.

"Nn, nothing." He shook his head. "This isn't time to talk leisurely! Your friend might have gone home if you don't catch up quickly!"

"It's fine. Now that I know whose book this is, I'd just leave it on her desk." Reina shrugged. "It would be too much hassle to run after her just to give this back. She must have reached the school gate by now and I might not be able to catch up with her even if I start running now. Anyhow, if the book is really important, Inuma would return sooner or later to look for it. It will be best to just leave it here."

She inspected the book before putting it on Inuma's desk; just to double check whether it really belonged to the bluenette or not. She wouldn't be able to recognize Inuma's handwriting as they weren't that close, but there should be a name written in it somewhere.

She flipped through the pages and, boy, what she found there was surprising.

 _It_ quickly made her change her mind; she had to return the book _now_. She'd need to talk to Inuma as soon as possible.

* * *

"Inuma!"

The said girl turned around as she heard Reina's voice calling out from a far.

"U- Usami? What's wrong?" She was taken aback when she saw Reina running after her.

"Here!" Reina raised the book and shoved it toward the other girl. "You left it on my desk."

Inuma's eyes widened in surprise. She quickly looked into her bag and was flabbergasted when she found that her book wasn't in there. "Oh my God, I didn't even realize- Thank you!"

Reina smiled as she handed over the book. "I take it's pretty important to you."

Inuma's face reddened. She pressed the book, the _sketchbook_ , tightly against her chest. "Did- Did you see the inside?"

"Oh, I'm sorry... I was just trying to check the owner." Reina said apologetically. Guess _it_ wasn't something one would want to show to anybody. "But I think they're really good… _your drawings_. You are really skilled."

"T- Thank you." Inuma said sheepishly.

"You know," Reina began. "About the project, why don't we have you draw it instead?"

"Are you serious?" Inuma raise her head in respond to Reina's word. Their eyes met and Reina saw Inuma's eyes were sparkling.

 _So this was what she actually had wanted to do when she had proposed the short manga idea, huh?_

The girl in glasses scratched her cheek. "Well, it will be a plenty of work, but if you're okay with that I'll try to help as much as I can."

"I'd love too! Thank you, Usami!" Inuma beamed. She then excused herself, saying that she wanted to go home as fast as possible so that she could start working on their project.

Reina waved at the other girl. Seeing Inuma smiled so brightly made her happy too. She was glad she had decided to go after Inuma. She was glad that her instinct was right.

"Hee… I thought you said that it would be too much hassle to run after her." Pixel's teasing voice rang in her head. She didn't notice that the earphone was still stuck on her ear even after all those running.

"Well… that's something that has to be done right away." Reina replied matter-of-factly.

"…"

"What's wrong?" Curious with the lack of reply from him, she took out the CureVice and turned out the screen. The fairy looked like he was deep in thought.

"Nah, I was just thinking." He paused for a while, contemplating whether to continue or not. He looked at her puzzled expression in silence before finally continued. "To tell you the truth, Reina, at first I was surprised to find how _you_ were different from the one I saw in WonderWorld. You are quiet, distant and don't have any friend. You are nothing like the _WonderWorld's REINA_ who are way more cheerful and always active in conversation."

Her brows twitched at the _don't have friend_ part. "Are you… disappointed?"

Pixel shook his head slowly. "It's not that. Just like what I said before, I was _surprised_. However, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. Sure, you are pretty different from my expectation, but just now I also felt _warmth_. You took the trouble to run after that girl because you had realized what would have made her happy. Sure, you're _different_ , but you're still _the same Reina_. Thinking about that makes me feel glad we're able to become partners."

"… Stop that; it's embarrassing." Reina looked away. Her cheeks flushed red.

The fairy giggled seeing her getting all embarrassed again. Perhaps, rather than cold and distance, this girl was just an awkward kid who wasn't able to openly express herself.

"OH!" Reina suddenly gasped.

Pixel blinked in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"I forgot to exchange e-mail address with!"

"…Geez." Pixel shook his head again. Who would expect this smart-looking girl could be a klutz too at times?

* * *

Around the same time at the back gate, the blue haired girl called Inuma Aya was getting ready to go home. She held her sketchbook tightly against her chest. She couldn't stop smiling and her heart was still throbbing in excitement. She couldn't hide her happiness; it had been a long time since anyone praised her drawing.

She had been a big fan of manga and anime since for years and aspired to become a professional manga artist. At first people around her would have supported her dream, but as she grew up and enrolled high school, her classmates started calling her a freak and shunned her away. Since then she had been afraid to show her drawings in public.

That's why she was _really_ happy now as there was someone who had seen her sketchbook but hadn't said anything ill about it. On the top of that, she was also trusted to draw the visual for their project. She couldn't be happier than this.

Inuma's mind started drifting away as she imagining what she should draw for their project: how would the characters look like, should she create the manga in four-panels format or a long one-shot, etc. She didn't pay much attention to her surrounding and accidentally bumped into a group of girls.

"Ouch!"

"Oh! S- Sorry! I wasn't paying attention!" Inuma quickly bowed.

The one Inuma had bumped into clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Inuma panicked. _'Oh, what should I do? What should I do? She seems to be mad.'_ She kept her bowing position, too afraid to look up.

One of the girls then scoffed. "Well, if it isn't Inuma…"

Hearing her name mentioned, Inuma slowly looked up. The girls in front of her turned out to be her former classmates from her first year.

"Hm? You know her?" one of the girls who stood on the back asked.

"You don't remember? She was in the same class as us last year."

"Oh, I remember," said the other, "She's the weirdo who sat in the corner the whole time scribbling god-knows-what."

"Ah.. that _otaku_?"

The girls raised their brows and looked at Inuma from top to bottom as if they were judging her appearance. They snickered when they saw the sketchbook in Inuma's hands.

"You're still doing _that thing_ , huh?" One of them remarked.

They then walked pass the poor girl, giggling and laughing at her. _"How disgusting."_

Inuma clenched her fists as she tried to hold back her tears. She could still hear the girls' laughter from afar.

What was that? How could they be so mean to her? Why did they hate her? Why did they look so grossed out with her drawing? Was it wrong to draw? Was it bad to dedicate herself to something she loved? Was it wrong to be herself?

 _She had enough of this._

Her heart ached; her mind was overflown with negative thought. She needed let it out; she needed to talk to someone… but _who?_ She didn't have any friend. Everyone hated her, alright? Everyone thought she was disgusting. She didn't have anyone to turn to.

 _The only thing she had was…_

Inuma took out her phone and looked at it with teary eyes.

 _The only place she could run to was…_

* * *

"This is bad!"

Reina stopped on her track. "What happened?" she asked in bewilderment as Pixel had suddenly jumped out of her CureVice.

The fairy flew several meters to the air. "I can feel it! This _malicious energy…_ _ **[malwave]**_ _…_ "

"What is that- Wait, don't tell me!" She gasped as realization struck her.

"It's shiranee!"

Just as Pixel said that, a loud cry was heard from afar. "Shiraneeeee!"

Reina quickly turned on her heels and ran toward the source of commotion. She made her way through the crowd of students who were running away to save their live and soon enough, a sketchbook-shaped Shiranee came into her vision.

"Geez, two days in a row…" Reina grunted as she saw yet again another monster destroying the school ground.

"It takes a shape of a book again!" Pixel pointed out. "It must be either a student or a teacher again!"

Indeed the shiranee this time looked like a book again. It was slightly wider and thinner than the previous one though, and it's equipped with a pencil shaped weapon.

'Huh? That book… it looks somewhat familiar…' Reina thought as she inspected the monster's appearance.

Just as she thought that, a faint sob reached her ears:

"… _why do they hate me? Why do they hate me drawing?"_ the monster's inner voice cried.

Reina's eyes widened. She _knew_ that voice. She had heard it just a moment ago. "Inuma? But, why?" Last time she had seen Inuma, that girl had looked so happy. Why? How could Inuma turn into _this_?

"So we meet again."

Reina heard another familiar voice. This time it was an arrogant, deep voice. She quickly looked around to find the owner of that voice.

"Tvo…" She glared at the red haired Infinity commander, who had just appeared beside the monster.

The said man smirked. "Such a nice expression you had there. Why so angry? Is it because I destroy your school again? Oh, or is it because _this_ is a friend?" He referred to the monster. "Or perhaps, _was_ a friend?" The creepy smile on his face grew wider as he glared back at her with bloodshot eyes. "Don't worry, soon enough you'll join your friend and everyone else in defeat and misery."

"I won't let that happen!" Reina gritted her teeth as held the CureVice in front of her. A stylus snapped out from the back of the device and flew into the air. She caught it with her free hand and twirled it in her fingers. The end of the stylus lit up as she did so, creating shiny ribbon like trails around her.

She then stopped her hand for a moment and shouted out loud. " **[Precure, Initialize!]** "

Blinding lights appeared and engulfed her. She suddenly found herself floating inside the light and twirled around. The trails of light around of her shattered into pieces and showered her. The light fragments covered her body and turned into a pink and white dress with a deep pink heart shaped gem on her left chest. More pieces of light gathered and covered her legs, forming a pair of black stocking and white boots. She crossed her hands in front of her chest and then a pair of gloves materialized on them. Silver lights then swirled and circled around her waist, forming a belt. She tapped the left side of the belt; the CureVice materialized there, enveloped in a white pouch. She flipped her undone dark purple hair. It glowed and turned into pale purple, forming high twintails and intertwining into loose braids. Pink ribbons materialized on her hair, followed by a pair of silver heart-shaped earrings and a silver choker.

Her feet touched the ground. She crossed her hands in front of her face. Her pink eyes fluttered open as her fingers slowly moved away. She tapped the heart gem on her chest and turned around.

" **[Download complete!** **Linking each of everyone's heart! Cure Actor!]** "

Fully transformed, Cure Actor stepped her right foot back. She took a deep breath and then dashed toward shiranee.

"GO!" Tvo ordered the monster.

Shiranee charged back at Actor as it was told to. It frantically waved the giant pencil in its hand, trying to hit Actor with it.

Actor was forced to be on defense and had to block the continuous attacks with all her might. It was hard to hit the monster back because of the giant pencil was getting in her way. She had to change her tactic as frontal attack was impossible. She crouched down; focusing her strength on her legs then jumped high into the sky. Shiranee looked up following her, but then got blinded the sun. "HAAA!" Actor shouted as she delivered an axe kick and knocked shiranee down. She jumped back and landed several meters away from the monster. She cautiously eyed its movement.

'I have to save Inuma.' She mentally noted. 'Concentrate on her inner voice!'

" _Nobody likes me. They think I'm gross..."_

Just like Reina, Inuma was always alone in class. However, it wasn't necessarily because she _preferred_ to be alone. She might actually want to have some company, to be accepted… but there was something that prevented her from blending with others.

" _Is it wrong for me to draw?"_

Right, Inuma loved drawing. She even drew in class. Could it be the reason she was casted away? No, why would people hate her just because she liked drawing? It was normal to get engrossed in thing one liked after all. There must be other reason…

" _Why can't anyone accept me?"_

Then perhaps… Perhaps her timing was off. Just like earlier during literature class, instead of looking for a partner she had kept drawing. Was that the reason why some people thought that she was a freak? Because she kept silent and avoided interaction with others? Because she preferred drawing over having conversation?

No, it wasn't like she chose to ignore her surroundings. She was just shy. She was too nervous to talk to others that she tried to preoccupy herself with something that could calm her down.

" _I hate this. I can't stand this anymore. Why am I like this?"_

'What a sad voice.' Actor thought. She still remembered, just several minutes ago, Inuma was smiling. The girl was happy when Reina praised her drawing. _That smile, those sparkle in her eyes_ … she wanted to reach out to that girl once again.

Inuma was just wanted to be herself, and on the same time, to be loved as the person she was.

"Do you hate yourself? Do you hate yourself who likes drawing?" Actor questioned carefully in low toned. "Do you regret ever loving drawing?"

"… _N-no! I never think about that! I love drawing… it helps me expressing myself: my idea, my thought, my feelings… I can be myself the most when I'm drawing…"_

"In that case, show them! You say you can express yourself through drawing, then use it to relay your feelings. Show them what you're really are. Show them what you want. A picture worth thousands words after all."

" _But… Can I do that? I never ever show my drawings to anyone. What if it makes them detest me more? What if it grosses them out?_ "

"Oh, I'm not saying that it's an easy thing. It might even be really hard to realize and not everyone might be able to understand… However, as long as you don't give up, as long you stay true to yourself and your love for drawing, I'm sure you'll be able to find someone who is capable to receive your raw emotion as a whole." Actor smile softly. After all, _Reina_ too, even just a bit, was able to find the beauty in Inuma's drawing. "Someday, surely…"

Shiranee stopped rampaging as its yellow eyes dimmed.

"Now's the chance!" Pixel shouted.

Actor clasped her hands on her chest and closed her eyes. She tried to gather all her feelings for Inuma and prayed that it would reach the latter. "Sadness, pain, and worries… I'll embrace all of them! Precure Dramatic Synchronize!"

The monster was successfully purified. Its gigantic body glowed and turned back into Inuma. Actor quickly caught her before she hit the ground.

"Not again!" Tvo clicked his tongue as he took a step back and disappeared.

"Good job!" Pixel cheered as he flew toward her partner. "I think you've started to get a hang of it."

Actor smiled then gazed at Inuma's unconscious face. "I'm just glad we're able to save her. She has suffered a lot, hasn't she?"

Just then a small light emerged from Inuma's chest. It floated in the air like for a while like a firefly before it went into CureDevice.

"What's that?" She asked.

"This is called **[Bits of Happiness]**. Just like its name suggest, it's born from human's happiness. It's a form of energy that keeps the fairy world running." Pixel paused, his expression became more serious. "Normally, it could be obtained by maintaining the human world's peaceful life through WonderWorld, but now that the server was damaged by Infinity, our world's source of energy has been cut off and both of the worlds have been getting weaker because of it. The only way to produce Bits of Happiness right now is by purifying shiranee."

"I see."

"Anyway," Pixel cleared her throat. "First thing first, we should rest Inuma somewhere. I think she'll regain her consciousness soon."

"You're right." Actor looked around and saw a bench nearby. She decided to lay Inuma down there.

"Here." Pixel handed over Inuma's sketchbook he had picked up to Actor. Apparently it had been blown away when Shiranee had been running wild earlier.

"Thank you, Pixel."

Just as Actor bend down and was about to put the sketchbook in Inuma's hands, the latter slowly regained her consciousness and opened her eyes.

"Huh? What happened?" Inuma asked weakly. "I think… I just had a very bad dream…"

"It's okay now." Actor assured. She then handed the sketchbook to the other girl. "Here. This is an important thing for you, right? You should hold it close to you."

Still in a daze, Inuma blinked several times before she took the sketchbook from the mysterious girl. "T- thank you."

Actor smiled once again before she straightened her back. "Take care." She then took Pixel with her and walked away as the other girl watched her back in silence.

* * *

The next day…

"Good morning, Usami." Inuma greeted while trying to suppress a yawn as she approached the said girl who had arrived before her.

"Good morning." Reina replied. She took a quick look on the Inuma's face. It seemed like the latter had suffered from lack of sleep. "Is the project too much work, after all?" She said while looking a bit apologetic for making her partner did most of the difficult work.

"Ah, no, no, it's fine!" Inuma quickly shook her head. "It's progressing really well. Most of the character designs are done. It's just that-" she yawned again. "I- you see, I got caught up in another thing." She said sheepishly.

"Another thing?" Reina slightly tilted her head.

"That's… w- well, I sort of got a story idea yesterday, it's completely unrelated to our assignment, really, but I just can't help sketching down the draft." Inuma explained, looking embarrassed. "Um… wanna see it? P- Promise me you won't laugh though!"

"Uh, sure?" Reina replied a bit uncertainly.

Just like Mr. Sanada's case, Inuma's mood seemed to have become a lot better after she had been purified with Cure Actor's power. However, Reina hadn't expected it would have changed Inuma this drastically though. Indeed she had told Inuma to show people her drawings, but to accomplish that in just one day? That was such a huge leap!

"Here you go." Inuma handed over her sketchbook. She then crossed her fingers and watched the purplehead nervously.

Reina flipped the pages and began to read the draft:

 _The main protagonist was a teenage boy who aspired to be a singer. However, he was too shy to sing in front of the crowd. Other talents who didn't like him made fun of him for being incompetence. One day after vocal practice, they gang up on him and told him to give up on his dream because he was just too hopeless. They took his musical sheets and threatened that they'd rip them into pieces. Suddenly, a mysterious guy came into the scene and took the sheets. He was handsome and tall. The mean group was flabbergasted when they saw him. It turned out this guy was a famous singer. They quickly excused their selves, leaving the protagonist and the cool guy alone. The cool guy turned to the protagonist and stared at the latter. He then raised his hand. The protagonist flinched and closed his eyes because he thought that he was about to get hit. However, it turned out that the cool guy just meant to return the music sheets to him._

" _Here." The cool guy said as handed out the sheets. "Such important thing… You've got to hold on tight to it"_

" _T- Thank you…"The protagonist looked up and blushed as he watched the cool guy walked away._

…

Reina's eyebrows twitched. This scene… no matter how one looked at it, wasn't it too dramatic for boy-boy interaction? What's with all those roses and lights in the background? On the top of that, wasn't it eerily similar to what had happened yesterday?

"How was it?" Inuma asked as she looked at Reina with puppy eyes.

"Erhmm…" Reina smiled stiffly. "How should I put this into words… I'm surprised by the caliber of your artistic skill."

"Thank you." Inuma beamed. "You see, yesterday I met _this very cool girl_. Seeing her made me think: _how cool, I want to be like that too._ It gives me inspiration to make a story about it."

"But why male characters? You said it was a girl."

"That's because it'll be more interesting that way. Handsome characters supporting each other and becoming closer as they overcome hardship… It'll be soooo beautiful." Inuma cupped her flushed cheeks and gazed at the ceiling with dreamy look.

Reina watched the other girl in bewilderment. To think that Inuma would be _this_ weird...

Oh well, what's important was that Inuma had found her happiness back and smiled again, even brighter than ever. Cure Actor had successfully purified the misery, and Reina was able to help her fellow classmate even just a bit. Everything was good… right?

* * *

 **That's all for now! This episode ended up to be pretty long again, I hope it met your satisfaction! Please review and rate! I'd love to hear your opinion. Concrits and corrections are always welcome n_n**

 **Thank you for your time and see you again soon ! :D**


	3. Episode 3

**Hello there! Sorry for the wait, the third episode is here!**

 **I'd like to announce a few changes I'll be making from now on:  
\- The keyword **_**sadness**_ **will be replaced as** _ **misery**_ **.  
\- Pixel will stop using –piku at the end of his sentences. It's getting silly and making his lines harder to read. Please just pretend that he's still talking like that :'D**

 **I have updated the first two chapters according to these points above. I also changed the scenes a bit (adding/removing some dialogues here and there) so that the story flows better. They're nothing major so you don't need to reread them if you don't feel like to :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Episode 3**

 **Freshly brewed! A sweet vanilla latte to warm up your lonely heart!**

Tap-tap-tap.

Tvo's black brogue shoes made a slow rhythmic sound as he walked along the dark corridor.

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.

Lighter footsteps echoed through the room. It came from the opposite end of the corridor. Tvo halted. He squinted his eyes on the darkness before him.

"Who is it? Show yourself!"

"My, if it isn't Tvo the loser." A jolly, boyish voice rang.

Tvo's brow twitched in annoyance as he heard the boyish voice. "What do you want, Drei?"

A tan skinned boy came out from the shadow. He wore a similar suit as Tvo's, though with a pair of shorts instead of trousers, and his hat was decorated with golden ribbons that matched his blond hair. His amber eyes narrowed as he grinned.

"Nooo~thing in particular. I just wanna see how the loser's doing." The boy called Drei said mockingly.

Tvo clenched his fists and glared at Drei. "Get lost."

"So scary, so scary~" Drei's smile grew wider. "How does it feel? Losing to a girl two times in a row? Pretty pathetic, isn't it?"

"Shut up." Tvo hissed dangerously.

"Make me."

The redhead grimaced as he rushed toward the boy and pulled the latter by the collar. Even so, the smile on Drei face didn't waver even a bit.

"Stop." Cold voice rang through the corridor. A figure appeared from the shadow. He was around the same height as Tvo, but his built was notably more slender. His skin was pale, in contrast to his collagues' and his wavy dark teal hair under his tall hat was like sea at night.

Tvo clicked his tongue as he saw the third figure. He then glared at Drei for the last time before he pushed the blond boy away and turned away.

"Heh!" Drei sneered as he watched the readhead left. "Loser."

"Drei." The third man said in warning tone.

"I know, I know. You don't need to be so alarmed, Viar." Drei raised his hands. "Don't worry, I'm different from that incompetent Tvo. I already have a plan to get rid that Pretty Cure girl."

"What matters most is the result." Viar said sternly. "Prove it that you're more than just talk."

"Yes, sir." Drei took of his hat and curtsied. He then teleported away.

"The faster the better." Viar muttered alone. "We can't afford to make Master Einn wait too long."

* * *

"I'm soooo sorry to make you wait!"

An auburn-haired woman clapped her hands together in front of her face then bowed before a younger girl.

"Nah, it's alright." Reina said to the first woman, who was none other than her aunt.

"I'm really, really sorry, Reina. Just when I promised you we can watch movie together on my day-off."

"It's okay, really. We can still catch the evening show." Reina tried to reassure her aunt, who was now in panic because the latter suddenly got an urgent call from her workplace. "You should go now. You can't keep your patient waiting, can't you?"

"Uuuh…" Her aunt still looked unwilling to leave, but then she nodded at Reina's words. "I'll call you later. I should be done before five."

"Yeah…" Reina smiled and waved her hand as she sent her aunt off. She then sighed once her aunt was out of her sight.

Reina's aunt was a doctor at the local hospital. She was busy and only had a day-off once in a while. Today, her day-off happened to be on Saturday so she promised Reina to take her to the movie to watch… or at least, that was the plan. Just now she had gotten an emergency call from the hospital and had to go back there.

'Oh well, it can't be help…' Reina said to herself as she looked around. They were already at the downtown and she didn't feel like going back home just to go there again later, so she decided she would just wait somewhere.

The coffee shop was pretty crowded because it was Saturday that she barely got a place there. Actually, she would prefer an indoor seat because the weather was still a bit chilly, but all other seats inside were taken. She sat down at the only empty table near the fence, where she could see people passing by on the street. She sipped her hot vanilla latte as she took out her laptop. She glad she had taken it with her.

Just then her phone vibrated and Pixel appeared on the screen.

"Your aunt seems to be really busy, eh?" He said through the loud speaker.

"It can't be helped…" Reina replied as she blankly stared at the loading icon on the laptop screen. Her aunt was a doctor after all; it's just how her life was. _It can't be helped_.

"Hmm…" Pixel mused, then with a small pop sounded he got out from the phone.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Reina protested.

"It's fine. People won't find out as long as I stay still." Pixel said as sat on empty seat beside her. He did look like normal stuff animal when he was like that. "Isn't it just lonely to sit by yourself?"

Reina sighed then looked back at the laptop screen. "Do as you like."

Pixel smiled. He watched her exchanging messages with her online friends on W2 site. Life has been upside down for her lately that she didn't have much time to manage her account.

"You have many friends there, but why none of them are from your school?" He asked.

Reina's fingers froze. "How do you know?"

"We admins of WonderWorld have the privilege to get all kind of information. It's not just yours; we investigate everyone's account to find Cure candidates." He explained.

Reina contemplated for a while. "Well…. As you can see I don't have many friends to exchange friend code." She admitted while trying to hide her bashfulness. "Besides it's just embarrassing…"

"Why?" Pixel tilted his head.

Reina stole a glance at Pixel before she continued. He noticed how her face had become sour. "You said it yourself, didn't you? That _I_ looked different from _the me_ in W2. To tell you the truth, I'm aware of that myself, and I'm sure the others will notice that too once they see my W2 account. I don't want people at school think I'm a freak."

Pixel hung his head and tried to think over her words. One couldn't truly understand other's heart if it's kept hidden. She was able to hear people' heart voice, yet she herself never opened up to anyone. She wouldn't be able to find a true friend if she kept hiding in her comfort zone. Was it okay to live like that? Was it sufficient to make her happy?

Felling that it wasn't wise to force the topic on her, Pixel decided to let it slip for now. He leaned back and faced sideway. He watched people passed the coffee shop. Couples, group of friends, families, and sometimes a lonewolf; there were many kind of people gathered in one small town. Whether to keep their selves companied or on their own, each of them had their own preference.

Human beings were hard to understand.

A certain person then caught his attention. A girl was walking with weird manner. Sometimes she would bump into others and after that she would frantically apologize. The cause of this was probably the big amount of luggage she was carrying. Her unnaturally long fringes might also make it hard for her to see the street clearly.

"Isn't that your classmate, Inuma?" Pixel pointed out.

Reina looked up from her laptop then turned to the street. She spotted the bluenette right away. "Oh, you're right."

"Shouldn't you call out for her?"

"Nah, it's too much hassle. Beside I don't wanna bother her either." Reina replied as she straightened her back, took a sip from her glass then turned back to her laptop.

'There she goes again…' Pixel sighed inwardly. What a waste, just when he thought she finally could make some _real life_ friend. Reina had gotten a bit closer to Inuma thanks to the group project this past week and Inuma herself had opened up a bit to Reina by showing more drawings… But then again, Reina just never showed a sign that she wanted to be part of society.

Oh, come on! You need at least a friend or two in your life!

"Inuma!"

Reina fingers stopped on their track as she heard a voice that was extremely similar to hers calling out to her classmate. She quickly turned to the source of the voice, which was no other than her own phone that was left on the empty seat where Pixel had been some moment ago. She picked up the phone and saw Pixel grinning ear to ear at her. He apparently had generated a voice similar to Reina's and called out to Inuma.

"What did you just-"

"Oh my, Usami! Good afternoon!" Reina's words were cut by Inuma, who suddenly had appeared next to the fence.

"Ah, uh, good afternoon." Reina replied hesitantly as she quickly hid her phone into her bag.

"What a nice coincidence. What are you doing here?" Inuma asked as she looked around the coffee shop. She noticed how the shop was full of couples and her face suddenly reddened. "Oh, don't tell me, a date? I'm sorry if I bothered you."

"No, no, that's not it. I'm waiting for a family member here." Reina quickly denied.

Inuma sighed in relief. She then saw the empty seat beside Reina. "Um, do you mind if I join?"

"Oh, uh, sure?"

Inuma smiled brightly as she heard Reina's reply. She made a small detour around the fence to find the entrance then walked back to Reina's table once she's inside. She noticed Reina laptop as she sat beside the latter.

"Is that W2? Oh, I didn't know you like W2 too."

"Oh, this," Reina hurriedly closed her laptop to prevent Inuma from seeing her homepage's content. "I'm just reading some news to kill time."

"I- I see…" Inuma replied as she looked down. Her previously bright face lost its radiance. She must have felt rejected by Reina's reaction. The air among them suddenly became awkward.

Reina felt bad so she tried to change the topic. "Um, what are you doing here, Inuma? Shopping?" She point out at the paper bags Inuma placed next to her feet.

"Y- Yes. I was stocking up my drawing equipment. There is a really nice art store just around the corner. They have a lot of good brands. They even have a complete selection of screentones I was looking for." Inuma took one of the paper bags, then took out some screentone sheets and show them to Reina.

Reina felt relieved that Inuma somehow had become cheerful again when she talked about the art store and her newly bought drawing equipment. It was a wonder how she became really happy just by talking about her interest. She was such a simple girl, and strangely, Reina found it a good thing.

"I was also looking for a new sketchbook since the last one is already full." Inuma continued as she took out the new sketchbook. It had light blue cover and was in the same size as the previous sketchbook she had.

"Do you mind if I draw here?" She asked. Her fingers are apparently itching to try out her new sketchbook.

Reina shook her head. "Go on."

Inuma then took out a pencil from her bag and started drawing some cute animal doodles on the first page. Her face suddenly became serious as she focused on her drawing. As time passed by, she leaned more and more forward to the point there was only 20 centimeters gap left between her face and the sketchbook. Her long fringes fell on her face, completely obscuring anyone from seeing her eyes.

Reina wondered if Inuma could even see like that.

"Could you even see like that?"

Inuma quickly looked up, but that wasn't Reina. Pixel had, once again, deliberately spoke up in her partner's place. Reina glared at the phone that had been peeking out of her bag.

"Oh this… I guess it has really grown too long, hasn't it?" Inuma said as she touched her fringes. "I've been meaning to get them trimmed, but I can't go to the hairdresser since I have spent my entire allowance on drawing equipment… and I don't have the gut to cut them myself." She admitted shyly.

"Well then, why don't you try using a hairclip? Wait a minute, I think I have some in my bag." Reina unzipped the front pouch of her bag then took out a blue hairclip. "Here, you can use it." She said as she handed it over to Inuma.

"I- Is it okay?" Inuma asked as she nervously took the hairpin from Reina. The latter nodded. "Thank you!"

"Also, I think you should try to tie up your hair too later." Reina added, making a gesture at Inuma's waist-length hair.

"I will. Thank you!" Inuma beamed. She clenched the hairpin in her hand as she stood up. "I'll go to the restroom to put this on-"

CRASH!

The bluenette accidentally bumped to a waiter when she just about to turned around. The tray in the waiter's hand slipped and crashed on the floor.

"I'm sorry, Miss!" The waiter apologized in panic. He quickly squatted down to gather the pieces of broken cups on the floor.

"No, it's my fault! I'm sorry!" Inuma apologized back. She also squatted down to help the waiter but he quickly stopped her.

"It's dangerous to touch the glasses. Just let me handle it, Miss. You can return to your seat."

"B- but..."

"It's okay. It's also part of my job." The waiter smiled, try to reassure his customer. However, the smile on his face vanished when he saw stain of coffee on Inuma's paper bags. "Oh my God, the bag! I'm sorry, Miss! I'm really sorry!"

Inuma looked at her bags. At first she panicked too, but then she remembered that each of the goods were also wrapped in plastic packaging so they should be fine even if they got poured with coffee. "I- It's okay, Sir. There was plastic wra-"

"What happened here?" The manager suddenly showed up. He looked at the mess then glared at the waiter. The waiter's face turned paper white. "You're bothering our customers! Clean up this mess right away!"

"Y- Yes Sir!" The waiter quickly gathered up the remaining pieces of the broken glass. Some of them pricked his hand but he was too scared of the manager to stop. After that he quickly stood up and brought everything inside.

The manager sighed then looked at Inuma, causing the girl to hold her breath. His stern face, however, suddenly softened as he bowed down. "We truly apologize for what happened. We'll find replacement for your bags as soon as possible. Meanwhile, please have our house special cheesecake as compliment." He gestured at a waitress who stood nearby their table and she quickly served the said cake to Inuma. Both the manager and the waitress then politely excused their selves.

"What should I do? It's all my fault…" Inuma bit her nails as she thought of the poor waiter.

"Let's hope he'll be fine." Reina, who had been watching in silence, said. Honestly, she couldn't be sure of what would happen to that waiter. She then shifted her attention to Inuma's belongings. "Hey, are the goods ok? We should check them, just in case."

"You're right." Inuma nodded in agreement. She then took out all the goods from the wet bags and with Reina's help, started checking them one by one.

* * *

"Found ya~" Drei whistled as he spied the coffee shop Reina's at from a nearby tree. "Now, all I need is some nice sorrow." The blond Infinity commander looked around. A smile the appeared on his face as he spotted _a certain waiter_ walked out from the shop's backdoor.

The waiter leaned back to the wall as he sighed. His ears were still ringing from the manager's scolding. This was his third mistake in this month. He didn't think the manager would forgive him this time. He would surely get fired, again… and this was the only coffee shop in town who would hire such a clumsy man like him.

There goes his dream to become a barista and start his own shop in the future.

 _Ahhh, this sucks. Everything sucks._

He sniffed as he tried to hold tears from pouring down. He fished out his phone and mindlessly wiped the screen with his bandaged thumb. The throbbing pain on his hand was a proof that he was alive.

 _Alive? Someone like him who couldn't even do anything right? Let alone opening up his own shop, he can't even serve a customer properly._

He wanted to just disappear from this world.

" _Right, a trash like you should just disappear from this world."_

With his shaking hand he typed down a certain line.

 **[I'm tired of all of this. It's better to just disappear.]**

Drei, who had been watching the poor waiter from afar snapped his fingers. A black aura then suddenly came out from the waiter's phone then engulfed his body. He laughed maniacally as the black thing before him grew bigger and turned into an omnious looking monster with kettle-shaped head.

"That's right. If you don't want your life that much, they you should just as well hand it over to us. Everything's for Master Einn!"

* * *

A loud explosion suddenly occurred behind the coffee shop. People started screaming and running around in panic. It didn't take much time for Reina to figure out the cause of the commotion.

'Infinity!' The word rang in her head as she stood up and took out her CureVice from the bag. Her CureVice was vibrating like an alarm, as if Pixel was telling her that the cause of the explosion before was indeed a Shiranee.

"We should run away!" Reina said to Inuma as she grabbed hand the latter's Inuma's hand and run toward the shop exit.

"W- what happened? I- Is it another monster attack?" Inuma asked in confusion as Reina dragged her along to the street.

Reina nodded without looking back. "Most likely." Her gripped on Inuma's hand tightened as she felt the tension around her rising. She couldn't transform now. Not here, not in front of Inuma. She had to take the latter to a safe place first and then return as fast as possible to take care of the monster.

Inuma, however, much the Reina's surprise, suddenly stopped on her track and caused Reina to halt as well.

"Wha-?" Reina looked back at the other girl in bewilderment.

"Usami, you can go first. I'll stay here to help the evacuation." Inuma said.

"It's too dangerous!"

"Somebody have to warn the people about it!"

"But-"

Inuma held Reina's hand tightly as she tried to convince the latter. "It's okay. Pretty Cure will definitely come to our aid!"

Reina widened her eyes as she heard that statement.

"It's gonna be alright, so, please believe in me!"

Reina looked at the girl in the eyes. Inuma's eyes were burning in determination. How strange. She had never expected Inuma to be able to have that kind of face.

"Alright." Reina admitted her defeat. She then put her other hand on the top of Inuma's hands. "Promise me you won't act recklessly."

Inuma's face brightened up. She nodded excitedly before she let go Reina's hands. "Un!"

Reina watched Inuma's back as the latter run into the nearest building to warn people there about the monster's attack. She clenched her fists; they still felt warm.

"What a strange girl." She muttered under her breath as turned on her heel and started running again. She took a turn around the corner and went into a narrow alley. She took out the CureVice after making sure that no one was there.

Pixel came out of the phone and flew to her side. "Ready?"

She nodded and stared at the phone screen. Such a strange feeling; somehow she felt her body burning up.

 _Pretty Cure will definitely come to our aid!_

Reina closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Wait for me. I'll definitely save everyone." She whispered to herself. Her deep pink eyes then shot open as she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"PRECURE, INITIALIZE!"

* * *

Back at the coffee shop, half of the building had been destroyed by Shiranee.

"Shiraneeeee!" The monster growled as it destroyed the counter.

"Nooo!" One of the waitresses, the one who served the cheesecake earlier, apparently was too late to run away and was left behind by both her employer and coworkers. She cried in agony as she saw the furniture getting smashed into pieces. "Stop it, please! I beg you!"

Drei laughed maniacally as he watched the woman pleaded. "Crush her!" He ordered Shiranee.

Shiranee followed the Infinity commander's order and walked up to the poor waitress. It raised his mug-shaped arm and swung it against the woman. However, just right before a collision happened, a pink flash suddenly dived under it and pushed her out of the way. The pink figure then caught the giant mug-arm with both hands. She pulled the monster's arm, causing it to lose its balance, then swung it around and threw it to Drei. The blond boy, however, skillfully dodged it. Shiranee caused a smoke of brown dust as it crashed onto the stack of grounded coffee behind Drei.

"There you are, Miss Cure Actor." Drei smirked as he recognized the purple haired girl in front of him.  
"What you took so long? I even started to think that you might have run away."

Cure Actor glared at the unfamiliar Infinity commander. "Who are you?"

"My, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself." Drei said in fake politeness. He held his hat against his chest then curtsied. "My name is Drei," He straightened up his back, and then added, "And I came here to destroy you."

As soon as he made the declaration, the monster suddenly jumped out of the smoke screen and charged at Actor. She put on defensive stance to block the attack head on head. But then hot water suddenly poured out of its kettle-head's spouts. Actor was taken aback by the sudden attack, but she managed to jump to the side just in time to dodge the boiling water stream.

"Ugh!" She grunted as she hit the ground hard.

"A- Are you okay, Miss?" The waitress who happened to hide under the table next to her squeaked.

'Geez, why are you still here?' Actor mentally spat when she saw the waitress was still around. She then sharply turned her head to see how the monster's doing. Just as she had guessed, Shiranee was already charging toward her again. She swiftly grabbed the waitress, wrapped her arms around the latter and then threw their bodies to the opposite side of the room in order to dodge the second hot water attack.

"Hieeee!" The waitress shrieked as he saw the metal table where he had been hiding under before melted upon slightest contact with the hot water.

"Run! Now!" Actor shouted to the waitress as she gestured to the exit door which was just two meters away from them. "I'll divert the monster's attention and buy you some time, so you should use this chance to escape!"

However, instead of obeying the cure's order, the waitress suddenly grasped Actor's arm to stop the latter from charging back at Shiranee. "D- Don't!" She pleaded. "He's not a monster! He's actually a kind person. He won't even hurt an insect, let alone destroying our work place like this. This place is special for both of us, this was where his dream began. He… He… Please, I beg you! Please save _him_!"

' _He_?' Actor looked at the waitress and then at Shiranee. Did the waitress mean whoever this monster was before? Kettle, coffee shop, acquaintance of the waitress, how the commotion originally started at the back of the shop… It suddenly clicked in her mind as she realized who the victim probably was. "The waiter back then…" she muttered.

Actor turned to the waitress, who looked back at her with teary eyes. She took the latter's hand from her arm then squeezed it tight. "It's alright," she began. "I'll definitely save him."

"Shiraneeeee!" the monster cried as he once again charged at Actor.

Actor stood up and prepared herself to receive another attack of hot water stream. She planned to hit the monster just when it just before spray the water, but once again Shiranee surprised her with a different attack. Instead of hot water, the spouts now shot long ranged coffee-bean-shaped missiles at her.

"Shi-" Actor cursed under her breath as she changed her plan and threw herself in front of the waitress to protect the latter.

Consecutive explosions occurred as Shiranee fired its coffee missiles. Smokes raised and covered the entire room. After what felt like an entire minute, the monster finished firing every last of his missiles.

"Mission accomplished." Drei's laughter echoed through the now dead room. He said as he turned around. "I'm different form the incompetent Tvo. That trash doesn't even understand how to pick a high grade Shiranee. The deeper the misery, the stronger malwave it produces."

"Are you done?"

Drei froze. "No, it can't be!" He slowly turned back and was greeted by Shiranee flying toward his face at unbelievable speed. By the time he realized what was happening, he was already too late to doge the monster's metal head.

CRASH!

"WHAT THE HELL!" Drei groaned as he got sandwiched between the heavy monster and the hard floor.

The smoke thinned, revealing Cure Actor standing on her two feet… not to mention unscratched. Beside her, Pixel was holding a sort of glowing shield made of light.

"Don't you know?" Pixel sneered. "The stronger our belief, the stronger our light power becomes!"

"Shut up!" Drei hissed. He then pushed Shiranee away. "Move, you useless piece of metal!"

Shiranee growled lowly, but it was heavily damaged from the previous impact. It was also out of bullets.

"You stupid garbage!" Drei cursed as he kicked the weakened monster.

"He's not garbage!" Actor refuted. "And you don't have the right to call him so!"

"Oh, shut up! Every lowly human being are garbage! They're useless, incapable beings. They dare to talk big but then they give up right away once they taste failure." Drei jeered.

"That's not true! Giving up isn't an easy thing! If it was that easy… then we wouldn't suffer like this." Actor's words cause Shiranee to let out a weak cry in respond.

"Whatever! You'll pay for this next time!" Drei stuck out his tongue then vanished into thin air.

"What's that? Such a brat." Pixel shook his head.

Actor didn't pay much attention to Pixel's remark. Instead, she stepped forward then squatted next to the fallen monster. "That's right. If only giving up was easy, it wouldn't hurt this much. Especially when there's someone who has a high hope on you. You can't just betray their expectation, right?"

The waitress slowly got up and with shaky legs, she approached Shiranee. She sat down beside Actor and touched the monster gently.

"Hayato…" Tears rolled down the waitress' cheeks.

 _A…ki..ko… That's right… Our dream…. Our dream shop… We can't give up on that…_

Actor couldn't help but smiled when she finally could hear Shiranee's voice of heart. She stood up then pressed her hands against her chest.

"Sadness, pain and worries… I'll embrace all of them! Precure Dramatic Synchronize!"

The monster was engulfed with light then it turned back to its original form, the clumsy waiter called Hayato.

"Hayato!" Akiko the waitress cried as she hugged Hayato's unconscious body. His face looked so peaceful that Actor believed that he would be alright now. He got a trusty partner that would support him both in good and bad times. No matter how many times he failed in the future, he would surely able to realize his dream.

* * *

"Usami!" Inuma cried out loud as she ran toward Reina and hugged her tightly. "I'm glad you're okay! I was so afraid I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"It hurts…" Reina muttered.

"Oh! Oh, um, sorry!" Inuma gasped then quickly released the purple haired girl. Her face turned read like a ripe tomato. "I'm sorry! I was just- So sorry! I must have made you uncomfortable!"

"No, it's okay. It's partially my fault to for making you worried." Reina shook her head. "Anyway, I'm also glad you're okay."

"Un." Inuma nodded quietly.

Reina took a side glance at Inuma, who was looking down to hide her red face under her long fringes.

"You were right…" Reina began slowly.

"Eh?"

"About Pretty Cure," Reina trailed. "She really came."

Inuma's mood lightened up as soon as the topic Pretty Cure was brought up. "Yes, yes, I've heard about that too. She has successfully defeated the monster again and save the shop staffs that had been involved in the incident." Inuma has completely forgotten about hiding her face and now was looking up with a dreamy look. "She's so cool."

"Cool, huh?" Reina repeated.

Inuma crossed her fingers then pressed it against her chest. "Warrior of justice, that's just too cool! I want to be like her too! She's so cool and strong and beautiful."

Reina sweatdropped. It was probably a wrong decision to talk about this. This otaku must have mixed up Pretty Cure with fictional heroes from anime.

 _Nevertheless…_

"Thank you." Reina muttered softly. It was so soft that it was almost inaudible.

 _Thank you, for believing._ Reina didn't want to admit it but hearing Inuma putting so much faith in her alter ego, Cure Actor, boosted up her confident to carry on her mission as the so-called warrior of justice.

"Eh? Did you say something?"

"Nothing." Reina shrugged.

Inuma tipped her chin. "Mmmm… I'm thought I heard something but, well, if you say too. It must be my imagination."

Reina's words were cut off when someone suddenly glomped on her, again.

"REINAAAAAAA!" The auburn haired woman cried out loud just next to the girl's ear.

"It- hurts- Uh, aunty…" Reina tried to push her aunt away.

Her aunt finally let go, but she was still holding to Reina's shoulders. "I was so worried when I heard about the attack. Oh, I shouldn't have left you there! What would I say to your parents if anything happened to you!"

Reina sighed. "I'm okay, really."

"We should get you checked just in case." Her aunt then noticed the other girl's presence. "Oh, a friend?"

"Uh, sort of?" Reina answered. To be honest she wasn't sure herself whether she and Inuma could be called as _friends_ yet. Well, they had hung out together a bit but… uh, not sure.

"My name is Inuma Aya. It's nice to meet you, Ma'am." Inuma politely introduced herself.

"I'm Usami Mito, Reina's aunt. Nice to meet you, Aya!" Aunt Mito smiled brightly. Inuma blushed a bit when she called her by the first name. Nevertheless she smiled back in reply. "Say, why don't you come with us to the hospital? I'm a doctor so I can check you up together with Reina."

"I'm sorry, but I must decline your offer. I have to go home soon." Inuma said as she bowed down.

Mito gasped. "Oh, right, your parents must be sick worried about you! I'm sorry for holding you back."

"It's okay. Thank you for the kind offer, Mrs. Usami." Inuma bowed once again, then turned to Reina. "Thanks for today. It was fun."

"Oh wait!" Reina exclaimed to stop Inuma who was about to leave. She then turned to Mito and asked to give them time.

Mito nodded. "I'll be waiting at the hospital." She winked at Reina then waved at Inuma. "See you again, Aya!"

"Take care!" Inuma bowed at Mito's back. After the older woman had disappeared from their sight, she then turned to Reina. "Um, is there something wrong?"

"Ah, no, it's just-" Reina glanced sideway as she scratched her cheek.

"Oh! The hairpin!" Inuma gasped as she suddenly remembered about it. She hurriedly searched the inside of her pocket, but she couldn't find it anywhere. "Uwah! I'm so sorry; I think I left it at the coffee shop! I'll return it as soon as I find it."

"No, that's not it. It's okay, you can keep it." Reina tried to calm the other girl down.

"But-"

"It's okay, I was planning to give it to you anyway."

Inuma's eyes suddenly became teary. "T- Thank you! I'll treasure it!"

'Nah, it's not a big deal! It's just a regular, plain hairpin. You don't need to be _that_ happy.' Reina thought to herself. She then cleared her throat, and tried to continue her unfinished line earlier. "Anyway…. Well, how should I put it? Thank you… for accompanying me today."

Inuma's eyes widened.

Uh, guess it just sounded weird, didn't it?

However, much to Reina's relief, Inuma replied with much positivity. "It's my pleasure!" The other girl said.

"And also…" Reina continued. "Your friend code…"

"Eh?"

"W2 friend code," Reina repeated. "You said it earlier, didn't you, that you liked W2 _too_. Let's exchange it later."

"Eeeh? B- but my account is full of embarrassing drawing, I don't think you might like to see them." Inuma's face turned red again.

"It's okay if you don't want to."

"NO, NO! I'd LOVE to!" Inuma quickly refuted. She then fished out her phone, but then… "Oh, I'm sorry, my phone ran out of battery…"

Reina shook her head. "It's ok, we can do it later."

"I'll email you the code as soon as possible!" Inuma promised.

'It's okay, really, no need to rush.' Reina thought, but decided not to say it out loud.

Inuma then stared at Reina's face, as if she was waiting for her to say something.

"That's all I want to say." Reina suddenly felt embarrassed and quickly turned around. "Later."

"Thanks for today! See you at school!" Inuma waved at Reina's back before she turned to the opposite direction and walked away in light steps.

Reina picked up her pace as she made a turn at the cross-sections. Somehow she felt more and more embarrassed along with each step she took. She started rethinking her decision. It was just… She was happy when Inuma had (indirectly) supported her and it made her want to do something in return. Inuma was a good girl and she thought it would probably be okay if it was that girl… even though that girl had strange liking and drew weird stuffs and posted those weird stuff and…

Oh God, maybe she shouldn't have done that! Her account was full of even more embarrassing things she couldn't possibly show to anyone. She wanted to hide a hole now!

" _Heh heh."_

Reina froze. What was that? What was that? THAT was Pixel.

She mentally slapped herself. She forgot he could hear everything.

"Hehehehe." The fairy couldn't stop giggling.

"Oh, drop it."

"Eh, about what?" Pixel said through the loud speaker.

Reina sighed as she continued walking down the road leading to her aunt's hospital. There's no way to make him stop now. He was in another dimension, out of her reached. She just wished he would get tired of this topic soon.

"Reina, Reina… I'm happy for you; you finally made a friend." Pixel made a sniffing sound as if he was crying.

Yeah, _as if_. Reina rolled her eyes.

"Oh, shut up!"

* * *

 **Hurrah! She finally made a friend! A real-life one!**

 **Okay, so a lot of new characters are introduced here. I hope you guys didn't get confused by it. One thing worth to be noted was that we finally get to see the other two Infinity commanders** _ **, Drei**_ **and** _ **Viar**_ **. There was also a scene where they mentioned their leader's name,** _ **Master Einn**_ **. Just a little information that their names are based on numbers: Einn=1, Tvo=2, Drei=3, and Viar=4.**

 **As for Reina's aunt, Mito, she's still single because she's too busy with her job as a doctor. She does regard Reina as her own daughter though! Wait, this doesn't mean Reina's parents are dead or anything. They are just living on other place. We'll see more of them when the time comes!**

 **Anyway, that's all for now! I see some of you might be hoping to see Inuma as to become a new cure, but apparently it's not her time yet. Or maybe, she's better to stay as a cure-helper? She's been fighting on her own way too after all *winks***

 **Thank you for reading. Hope you like it. Please leave some review. I'd love to hear your thought on this particular chapter ^_^**


	4. Episode 4

**Howdy! Thank you for the wait. Here's the long awaited (as if!) fourth episode! It's a bit longer than the previous episodes. I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

 **Episode 4**

 **Scoop! The Target is Pretty Cure!**

It was a wonderful morning in Kanazono. The weather was perfect; the spring air was refreshing, flowers were blooming and birds were chirping happily. It was a great way to start your day.

"Shiraneeeee!"

Well, it _would have been_ great if only Infinity hadn't showed up so early in the morning.

 **"Precure! Dramatic Synchronize!"**

The pink cure jumped high as she summoned her signature attack. The light flash hit a bicycle-shaped monster right on its forehead. The monster growled as it got purified and turned back into its' original form, a weary looking paperboy.

"Argh! so annoying! I didn't come here extra early just to lose again! You'll pay for this!" Drei cursed. The sore loser boy stuck out his tongue then disappeared into thin air.

After the Infinity general took his leave, Cure Actor and Pixel brought the paperboy to a nearby bench and let the poor boy rest. Actor mused as she watched the boy's resting face and recalled how Drei had suddenly showed up before her on the way to school and turned this poor bystander into a monster. Why in the world would Infinity even get the idea that attacking people would be a great thing to do in Monday morning?

"It's Monday and I feel tired already." She sighed as she placed her hands on the hips.

"Good work." Pixel said. He shared her sentiment, but he knew that he shouldn't complain about it as it was part of their mission to help people whenever and wherever they were.

After making sure the boy was okay, Actor then took out her CureVice and looked at the clock. She clicked her tongue. "Now I'm late for school." Judging by the distance and _Reina's_ running speed, she wouldn't make it in time even if she had run for her life. A brilliant idea then popped in her head. She should just make use of her enhanced speed as a cure and then detransform to her civilian form once she was near the school. That way, she should make it on time before the gate was closed.

 _Yes, that would do._ It shouldn't be a problem as long as she was careful enough not to be seen by anyone.

Once she made up her mind, Actor shoved her CureVice back into its case then proceeded to make a run to school.

"Wait, you're leaving in that outfit?" Pixel asked flabbergasted as she left without having told him anything about her plan. "Waiiiit!" He flew as fast as he could to catch her up.

Unknown to both of them, there was a shadow lurking behind the tree that had been watching them in secret. "So that's the rumored Pretty Cure, huh?" The figure mumbled as they stepped out of the shadow with a camera in their hand.

* * *

The school bell rung, marking the end of 4th period as well as the start of lunch break. Reina rested her chin on her hands as her eyed followed Mr. Sanada exiting the class. She sighed heavily. She still felt tired from the fight this morning. Pixel had joked that she should just counted it as morning exercise replacement and it had been good for her health but, really, as good as it could have been for her health, she would have preferred the old, peaceful morning. Thanks to Infinity (that stupid Drei brat!) she would stay tired for the entire week.

"Reina, let's have a lunch." A familiar blue haired girl approached said her. Reina looked up and her gaze met Aya. Ever since the two girls followed each other on WonderWorld, they've become even closer than before. One might say that they were _friends_ now.

Reina's eyes fell on the blue lunchbox in Aya's hand. She sighed once again then got up. "Right..." She replied softly as she took out her own lunchbox from the bag.

"You look pretty tired. Did you not have enough sleep?" Aya asked in concern as she peered into the other girl's face. She had found out that Reina liked to stay up late online and usually suffered from lack of sleep in the morning.

"Nah, it's just that I had some business to attend this morning." Reina replied halfheartedly. She couldn't tell Aya that she had run into a monster on her way to school, could she?

"I see." Aya felt that Reina didn't really want to talk about it and decided to change the topic. "Say, why don't we eat outside? At the garden, maybe? The weather is very nice today."

"That's a good idea." Reina nodded.

A smile bloomed on Aya's face as she heard the positive replied. She then slide open the door to exit to the hallway, just to found out someone had been blocking the way. "Hiieee!" She shrieked as she almost run into the other person.

"Inuma Aya, I presume?" The girl before Aya said as she pushed up her glasses. She had short dark brown hair and wore oval-shaped glasses. She was taller than both Aya and Reina, and from her uniform Reina could tell that this girl was a third year. There was also a yellow band around her right upper arm with _MASS MEDIA_ written on it. "I'm the newspaper club's president, Masuko Misa. May I have a word with you?"

"Y-y-yes." Aya stuttered under the pressure of the third year girl before here.

"Good. Follow me." Masuko turned around and walked away without giving Aya a chance to say anything.

"W-what should I do?" Aya turned to Reina for help; her face paper white. "H-had I done something wrong and made her angry?"

"I don't think so..." Reina narrowed her eyes at Masuko's back. She couldn't help wondering what this girl wanted from Aya. If she recalled correctly, the senior also mentioned that she was from the newspaper club. Just what in the world…

Masuko noticed that Aya hadn't move an inch. She looked back and tilted her head to the side, gesturing the latter to follow her.

"Reina…" Aya looked at Reina with pleading eyes.

Reina's brows twitched as she stared back at Aya's puppy eyes of Aya. "…fine, I'll accompany you."

Reina stepped ahead and followed Masuko, with Aya hiding behind her. Masuko didn't seem to mind having Reina tagging along and instead lead her two underclassmen to the newspaper clubroom.

"Come in." Masuko opened the door and let the two girls entered the clubroom, then walked inside and closed the door behind her. The room was significantly smaller than a regular classroom, but it still fit several tables that were gathered together at the middle of the room. On one side of the room, there was another desk with a set of PC on it. On the other side of the room there was also a whiteboard with papers and notes stuck on it.

"My apologies for taking your time. Please take a seat." Masuko said she walk around the tables and approached the whiteboard. She took one of the papers that were stuck on the board and hold it in front her chest. She eyed Aya, who along with Reina, had obediently sat down and was now looking up at the senior student with worried face.

"Inuma Aya," Masuko began. She looked at the paper in her hands then looked back at the said girl.

Aya gulped. "Y-yes!"

"There was a report that, two weeks ago, after school, you were attacked by an unknown man at the back gate. Is that correct?"

"Y-yes?"

"And then you got turned a monster."

"Uh, I guess?"

"And then you got saved by a girl called _Pretty Cure_."

"I-I think so…"

"Can you tell me the detail?"

Aya fidgeted, her eyes darted around the room, trying not to have an eye contact with Masuko. "Uuuuh... I don't really have any recollection about most of the event. I passed out, and only caught a glimpse of the Pretty Cure."

Masuko frowned, causing Aya to back away.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know what happened back then." Aya squeaked.

Masuko stared at Aya for a while before she spoke up, "Well, based on my investigation most victims don't seem to have any recollection about the attack. If what you're saying is the truth then I guess this is true." She walked to the PC then turned it on. "You said you saw a glimpse of the Pretty Cure, is that correct?"

"Y- yes!" Aya nodded vigorously.

The corner of Masuko's lips turned upward. She opened the folders then played a certain video. "Can you check this out for me?" She stepped back and let Aya to move closer to the PC so that the latter could see the video more clearly.

Reina's eyes bulged out as she saw a video of Cure Actor was played on the PC. Why? How? When? Just how on the earth did Masuko get a copy of it?

"I happened to run into the Pretty Cure's fight this morning." Masuko explained, as if to answer Reina's questions. She seemed to be very proud of it. Pretty Cure's fight had only been a rumor so far and so this was probably the first record ever made of it.

Meanwhile, Reina felt an urge to slam her head to the wall for being so careless. Just how far this record would go? What if Masuko also have a record of her transformation? What if she had found out her identity? What if she played that scene in this room?

"Inuma, can you confirm if it's the same person with the one that rescued you?" Masuko asked.

"Yes! Yes, it's her! That hairstyle and that outfit, I'm positive it's the same person." Aya answered, her eyes were still glued on the monitor, watching Cure Actor fighting against the bicycle-shaped monster

"Good." Masuko smiled in satisfaction as she tapped Aya on the shoulder. The latter didn't say anything in reply; she was too busy watching the video and had completely forgotten her surroundings.

Ignoring the fact that she was being ignored by the junior, Masuko then announced dramatically. "With this we can finally confirm that…"

' _That..?'_ Reina gulped as she waited for Masuko to finish her sentence. She mentally crossed her fingers, hoping it wasn't about her real identity.

"…the Pretty Cure we've heard a lot about is…"

' _Is..?'_ Reina involuntary held her breath.

"…a single person!"

"What?"

"Pardon?" Masuko looked questionably at the silent girl who had suddenly spoken up.

Reina quickly put her hand against her mouth. She racked her brain trying to find a way not to make herself sound suspicious as much as possible. "Sorry, I mean… What do you mean by a single _person_? Is that… a great find?"

"Of course it is!" Masuko huffed. She then flipped the whiteboard to show the other side of the board that had been kept hidden up until now. There was a map with several circles drawn on it with red marker. She slammed her hand on the board. "You see, in the past two weeks there have been several monster attacks all over Kanazono Town, as well as report of the sight of this Pretty Cure we're looking for. The size of our town was quite big so it was possible that there had been several Pretty Cures in the town. While there hadn't been any report of Pretty Cure's appearing on two or more different locations on the same time, the possibility wasn't zero either so I was important to confirm the number of them first. Thankfully, according to the testimony of the victims, we found similar descriptions, mainly light purple hair, fluffy twintails, and pink costume. Inuma was the last one to give her testimony and her description also matched the video I happened to get this morning, thus we can safely assume that there's only one Pretty Cure in Kanazono."

Reina stared blankly at her senior. Well, she applauded on how detailed Masuko's investigation was, but on the other hand this just sounded ridiculous. Like, was number even important? And it wasn't like it had been hard to learn that there had been only one _her_. Oh well, at least it didn't look like Masuko had found out about her secret identity, which was really good. To think again, if Masuko had figured it out, the senior would have dragged _her_ instead of Aya.

Masuko's eyes twitched in annoyance. She could see that this junior of her wasn't really impressed by her finding. "Well, confirming the truth of all the data we have gathered is also part of our job as mass media. We can't publish mere speculations or rumors after all." She cleared her throat. "What about this then, I've also concluded that, _most likely_ , the Pretty Cure is actually a student of our very school!"

Now, _that_ was a news. It was surprising enough that Aya, who were previously too preoccupied with the video, also looked up upon hearing Masuko's declaration.

Reina raised a hand. "Excuse me, but where does that come from? Earlier you said the attacks took place all over the town, why would you suddenly focus on our school?" While Masuko's wild guess that _this Pretty Cure was actually a student of their school_ was right, Reina just couldn't cope with how Masuko had come up with that idea. Earlier Masuko hadn't been even sure how many people the Pretty Cure had been.

Masuko smiled proudly, finally these girls paid a full attention to her. "You see," She pointed on one circle in the middle of the map, which Reina only realized actually drawn a little thicker than the rest of the circles. "The first two monster attacks, Mr Sanada's case and Inuma Aya's case, both happened in this school. Both also took place during school hours. Based on her appearance, there is a high chance that the Pretty Cure was still in her teen, a student, and since she appeared as soon as the commotion happened, that meant she must be around the school ground at those time, thus being a student of our school!"

"Err, it might be just a coincidence. She might just happen to be near our school, or rushed to our school just because she heard about the attacks." Reina refuted.

"How about this," Masuko pulled out a marker then drew a new circle to mark a new location. "This morning, after the fight, she seemed to be in hurry and headed toward our school direction." Masuko added a line starting from the new circle straight to the school. "What do you think?"

Aya tipped her chin as she tried to figure out what Masuko was hinting. "Hmm…. it looks like she needed to go somewhere else as soon as possible, and if she's really a student… then maybe she was heading to school!"

"Correct!" Masuko beamed. "There isn't any other school in this area so we can conclude that she headed to our school, thus, verifying my theory that she is a student of this school!"

"But there isn't anyone that look like that here, right? We'd notice right away if we saw someone as tacky as her." Reina tried again, hoping it would change their mind.

"Oh, it must be _it_ , you know, cosplay." Masuko waved her hand. "Nowadays, superheroes movies and comics are quite popular and cosplaying as superhero characters is also pretty common lately. Just take off the costume and the wig along the way here and _voila!_ she'd turn into a regular student. It can be anyone. It might even be _you_."

Reina stiffened at when Masuko suddenly pointed at her. "…Please don't joke around." She tried to act as nonchalantly as possible.

Masuko then went on; she didn't seem to pay much attention to Reina's odd reaction. "The problem is, I can't find anyone with the spec of the Pretty Cure. I browsed through the record of our students and couldn't find anyone that matched her strength or speed."

Well, since Pretty Cure's physical ability was inhuman, it was very unlikely for Masuko to find anyone that could reach Pretty Cure's level. Reina doubted that even pro athletes could rival it. Pretty Cure's body was magically enhanced; it was a good thing Masuko thought that her costume was merely a cosplay. If Masuko found out about the magical enhancement, then it would end up as _'It could be anyone'_ again and it would be really bad for Reina. Who knows, maybe next time Masuko would even try to find people who looked similar to the Pretty Cure or even checked her voice. Reina's basic appearance might be different when she was in Cure Actor form, but her face and voice were pretty much the same.

"Say, Senior," Aya suddenly spoke up.

"Yes?" Masuko turned to Aya and tilted her head.

"Um… why do you want to learn so much about Pretty Cure?" Aya asked. She still felt a bit scared but the curiosity won over.

Masuko blinked several time as if trying to understand Aya's question. "Isn't it ooooobvious?" She shouted out. "I'm putting it up in the school newspaper! SCOOP! PRETTY CURE'S IDENTITY REVEALED! STUDENT BY DAY HERO BY NIGHT! THE VERY SOLDIER OF JUSTICE BORN IN OUR SCHOOL! …or something around that line. Don't you think it'll be a hit? Pretty Cure has been gaining a lot of popularity lately, everyone on the internet are talking about her! Imagine if we become the first to find out about her secret identity! The newspaper club's starting to lose its standing in this school since everyone prefers searching news online nowadays. However, if this plan goes smoothly, the club will get a good impact and we regain our function as the source of latest news for the students!" The newspaper club president clenched her fists and added softly. "I might also be able to ask for a raise for our club budget in the next student council meeting..."

"Come again?" Aya asked as she couldn't hear the last part properly.

"Nn, nothing." Masuko grinned. "What about it? Are you by any chance interested in this?"

Aya waved her hands frantically. "O-oh, no, it's just that… I just think that it'll be nice if I can meet Pretty Cure once again. I still haven't thanked her for saving me." She said sheepishly.

"Aww… you're such a sweet girl, Inuma." Masuko patted Aya's head softly several times, and then suddenly wrapped her arm around the younger girl's shoulder. "Well then, why don't you help me with the investigation? That way we can find the Pretty Cure twice faster."

"Eh? Eeeeeh?" Aya shrieked. She tried to free herself but it was too late, she had fallen into Masuko's trap and there was no way escaping from the senior's grasp.

"You came just in time; we're running low on members. It's hard to do everything by myself so I'm reaaaally glad you came." Masuko smiled sweetly; it was so sweet that it made her look a lot scarier than how she had looked first time they met.

"Eeeeeeeeehhhh?"

Masuko then turned to Reina, who had quickly backed away as far as possible. "Well, what about you Usami-"

"I'm sorry, Senior, but I'm not really interested in prying into people's life." Reina quickly said, then opened the door behind her. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go now." She shot an apologetically look at Aya and rushed out of the room.

As if she would help Masuko learning about _her_ secret!

* * *

"I see, so that's what happened." Pixel nodded repeatedly as he chewed a slice of rolled egg. "Thankfully, that Masako girl didn't see you transforming. It would have been a disaster if she had found out your identity."

Reina bit her lips as she imagined what it would be like if people found out that she was a Pretty Cure all along. "That'll be a bad."

"Yes, we shouldn't let innocence people get caught in our fight. They might end up in unnecessary danger." The fairy crossed his arms and nodded.

"I don't wanna be called a cosplay hero."

" _That_ 's your problem?"

Pixel rolled his eyes. He then took another slice of egg from Reina's lunch box and shoved it into his mouth. "Anyway, you shouldn't let your guard down from now on." He added while his mouth was still stuffed with food.

"Yes, yes…" Reina replied half-heartedly. Really, if he wanted her to be more careful of people's eyes, maybe he should stop eating her lunch leisurely on the first place. Who wouldn't find a talking gluttonous stuffed animal suspicious?

The girl sighed as she gave up on her lunch and let Pixel finished it instead. She leaned back onto the cold wall and closed her eyes. "I'm sleepy." She mumbled and started to doze off. The rooftop they were hiding now was deserted. No one came there during lunch break so it was quiet. The noise downstairs was barely audible, except for some shouting that came once in awhile.

She wondered about Aya. Was that girl able to get away from Masuko? Reina felt guilty for leaving her friend behind. It felt as if she had left Aya alone in a lion's den to save her own life. 'Well, it just couldn't be helped, right?' She tried to justify her act. There was no other choice; it would have turned worse if she had stayed there. If she had gotten caught as well she would have been under Masuko's watch 24/7 and it would become a lot harder to hide her secret.

Suddenly her trail of thought was disrupted by a loud explosion.

"Infinity!"

Reina's eyes shot opened as Pixel shouted out. The two looked around for the source of commotion and found Shiranee had just appeared on the baseball field.

"Really? Two monsters in one day? Geez, are they planning to exhaust me with successive attacks?" She grumbled.

"I hope not." Pixel replied. "That's aside; we should not waste our time here!"

"I know, I know." After making sure that they were really all alone there, Reina took out her transformation device and got ready to transform for the second time.

* * *

"Shiranee!" The monster cried out as it ran after the students. This time, it took form of a black digital camera and had the ability to turn anyone into stone statue using a flash attack that came out of the lens on its body.

The students scattered around in panic. They become even more terrified when they saw their friends got petrified by the monster's attack. Mr. Sanada and some other teachers tried to stop it from attacking the students, but they failed and were turned into statue in one shot.

"Stop it right there!"

The pink Pretty Cure shouted out as she dashed toward the scene. She jumped and kicked the monster down. After she sent it flying several meters away and crashed it to a tree, she quickly turned to the remaining students and told them use this chance to get away from there. "Quick, get inside!" She pointed at the school building. The students followed her order and run into the building as fast as they could.

"How horrible." She winced as she saw inanimate statues around her that were supposed to be her fellow students and teachers.

"Be careful, Actor, this one looks a lot stronger than those we faced before." Pixel whispered as he flew low around his partner.

"How do you like my new underling?" A red haired man suddenly appeared out of thin air and laughed.

"Tvo!" Actor scowled as she recognized then Infinity general.

"It's been a while, isn't it, Cure Actor?" Tvo curtsied. "I should thank you for kicking Drei's ass. Thanks to you that brat has become less annoying."

"I see you're still as annoying as ever." Actor jeered.

"As my gratitude, let me show you a whole different level of a Shiranee." He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. "This place reminds me of our first meeting; however, the result will be different from that time. This time, I will come victorious!"

Shiranee rose up as it heard Tvo's signal and charged toward Actor. Actor stepped back to dodge its fists, then ran around it to avoid the flash attack and kicked its rear. The monster staggered and lost its balance from the attack. She took this chance to launch more punches. After a series of high speed attacks aimed at its back, it finally fell to the ground and stop moving.

Actor landed on the top of the Shiranee and stared at its unmoving body. How should she put this? It was unexpectedly _weak_. It was slow compared to the previous ones and the flash attack was also quite easy to avoid as long she didn't fight it face to face.

Maybe it was just her getting customized to fighting?

Somehow she just couldn't shake of the bad feeling about this. Something wasn't right. The petrification ability aside, the monster's spec was too low for Tvo to be so confident about it.

Speaking of the devil, Tvo still had that smug grin plastered on his face. "Impressive! That was splendid! I see you've improved a lot." He said mockingly as he clapped his hands. "You're able to take it down in such a short time, expected from the legendary warrior, _Pretty Cure_."

As if triggered by his words, the monster suddenly growled. At first it was only inaudible murmur, but its voice got clearer and louder as its body started shaking.

"… _Pretty Cure… More… I want to know more…"_

Sensing danger in the monster's sudden change, Actor jumped back to put some distant between them. She frowned as she focused on the inner voice.

" _Big scoop… Need to reveal… Pretty Cure's… secret identity!"_

"Don't tell me!" Actor's eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the voice. "Senior Masuko? But how? Why?" Just a few hours ago Masuko was high-spirited and very determined to look for the Pretty Cure. How did she fall prey to Infinity?

In the midst of confusion, Shiranee suddenly rose up and flashed its petrifying laser toward Actor. It moved a lot faster this time that she wasn't able to counter attack and could only jump around to avoid the deadly attacks.

"Senior Masuko, why? What happened to you?" Actor tried to reach out to Masuko as she dodged another attack by a hair's breadth. "Weren't you looking forward to investigate about Pretty Cure?"

"How naïve." Tvo smirked. "Well, I guess you're still too green to understand this. Misery comes in many shapes. Ha, do you think only the pathetic people can feel miserable? Even the _happiest_ person can't escape from misery. Hope, goals, expectations… everything brings misery in one way or another."

" _More! I need to know more!"_ Masuko's inner voice cried out. _"Who are you? What are you fighting for? What are you hiding? PRETTY CURE!"_

"Senior!" Actor called out desperately.

This was bad. What should she do? What should she say in this situation? Masuko was clearly different from the previous victims; simple encouragement wouldn't work. What would be good? Should she just try to calm her down by promising to reveal Pretty Cure's secret later? Nah, an empty promise would be too risky. What if it made her more hyped instead? It might even backfire and deepen Masuko's misery if she found out that it was a lie.

Just what on earth should she do?

Actor was too caught up in her thought that she failed to notice another flash attack incoming. She jumped to the side but was a millisecond too late to completely avoid it. As a result, the light hit one of her legs. That particular part of her body suddenly felt really heavy and caused her to lose her balance.

"Argh!" She cried in pain as she crashed to the ground. The sharp rocks cut her bare skin and torn her stockings. For a moment her vision blacked out and all she could feel was throbbing sensation on her entire body, accompanied by Tvo's echoing laughter. She blinked several times, trying to focus her scattered mind. After a while, it finally came to her what had just happened and how bad her current situation was. She looked up and saw Shiranee was already standing before her. Shoving the pain away, she tried to get up as quickly as she could… only to find that her left leg had partially turned into stone.

"Shoot!" She grimaced when she saw what her lower limbs had become.

"This is the end!" Tvo declared. "Finish her!"

Shiranee crossed its arms in front of its body and started charging its most powerful attack. Their surrounding became really bright due the intense light. Actor held her breath as the powerful beam was aimed at her. She gritted her teeth, bracing herself to get hit by the petrifying light.

Just as she thought that it would be impossible to avoid the attack, a small figure suddenly flew in between them and faced the monster. The small figure swiftly held out his hands, creating a shield of light just in time before Shiranee's beam attack reached him and deflected it.

"It's not over yet!" Pixel cried out when the two lights collided.

"Tch! You again!" Tvo clicked his tongue. He raised his arm. "Shiranee! Use more power and crush those two!"

"Nggh!" The small fairy mustered all of his strength to stand against the intense beam attack.

"Pixel!" Actor gasped as she saw Pixel's shield slowly got overwhelmed.

"I guess I'm still not strong enough, eh?" Pixel muttered under his breath. At this rate both he and Actor would get hit by the light and turned into stone. He turned at his partner and exhaled sharply as he saw how she still hadn't moved an inch. "How long do you plan to sit there like an idiot?"

"Wha-" Actor blinked in confusion and then scowled. "No, I was just a little surprised!"

"Well, you should get going then. My shield can't stand for too long." Pixel paused and eyed her petrified leg. "Can you move?"

She used her hands to support the weight and pushed her body up. "It's… not… a problem!" She stomped her right foot and tried to get up. She staggered a bit in the process but eventually managed to stand up right.

Soon Pixel's shield started to crack. He sensed that he might soon reach his limit. "The shield will break anytime soon! Get away from here as quick as you can!" Pixel said to his partner.

"What about you?" She asked in concern. The flash attack would come through once the shield was broken and as fast as Pixel could be, he wouldn't make it in time to avoid it unscathed. At worst he would turn into a stone statue like everyone else. She couldn't just leave him behind like that, could she?

"I'll be alright," he smiled reassuringly. "Just focus on what you have to do."

"But-"

"We have no time!" He cut in. "Listen, you're the only one who can purify the monster and as your partner, it's my job is to support you and protect you at any cost." He looked at her worried face and grinned. "Don't make that kind of face! It's gonna be alright! Everything will return to normal once you've defeated the enemy."

Actor bit her lips and nodded. "Alright."

"Good." Pixel said as he turned around and faced the light attack. "I'll release the shield in three seconds. Use this chance for counter attack. In three… two… one!"

As the countdown reached zero, Pixel's shield suddenly exploded, shattered the ground and raised dust screen around them. Nevertheless, Shiranee's light beam still managed to pierce through and completely engulfed the area where Pixel and Actor were standing.

Tvo laughed in triumphant as he saw the scene, completely oblivious to his opponents' little plan. He approached the battle field, expecting to see the Pretty Cure and her fairy as stone statues, only to find that Actor had gotten away.

"Where is the girl?" He looked around in panic. He wasn't able to see clearly due the dust screen and frantically waved his arms around to clear his surroundings. He looked up in the middle of the confusion and widened his eyes as finally found her high up in the air.

Actor gazed down at Tvo and Shiranee below her. She also caught a glimpse of Pixel lying on the ground and the sight pierced her heart. "I'm sorry, Pixel." She muttered softly as she bit her lips; it wouldn't have ended up like this if only she hadn't had let her guard down.

She shook her head and quickly shoved the bad thought away. No, she had no time to lament her mistake. She had to focus on purifying Masuko's misery. Actor closed her eyes and tried to sync her heart with Masuko's.

" _I want to know more about Pretty Cure. I need to know more! More! Faster than anyone else! I want to be the first one to reveal her secret identity! I want to make an article that can surpass any other news!"_

"So this is her misery?" It's indeed different from the ones she had encountered before. Actor's chest felt hot. The excitement, the passion, the thirst of knowledge… Masuko's emotions were burning and uncontainable… They were so strong that it made her hard to breathe.

How could it end up this way? Masuko looked like she was enjoying herself with all the investigation stuffs, so how brought up negative feelings? Was she forcing herself too much? Were there other reasons behind this? Was it because of the club? Was it because of her responsibility to deliver interesting topics?

Actor shook her head. She didn't know. She couldn't figure out what had turned the senior that way.

The only thing she knew right now was that she had to do something to cool Masuko down and stop her obsession toward Pretty Cure.

Actor gritted her teeth as she set her sight on Shiranee. She spun her body and dived right toward the monster. Using gravity and momentum of the rotation to strike a mortal blow, she delivered a strong drop kick right on the lens part and shattered it to pieces. Shiranee was pushed back due the strong impact and fell down.

Actor landed before the monster. She straightened her back, took a deep breath and crossed her arms.

"Let me get this straight, Senior Masuko… you're annoying!"

" _Say what?"_ Masuko inside Shiranee was dumbstruck.

"Selfishly getting excited by something, selfishly forcing people to comply with you just to fulfill your own thirst, and now selfishly getting down because of it! And on the top of everything, you selfishly made _me_ the object of your interest!" She shouted out loud as she placed her hand on the top of her chest. "Don't you know how troublesome it is to have someone prying into your private life? Having to fight monsters is tiring enough, why can't you give me some space to breathe?"

"Haaaa? What the hell are you saying?" Tvo exclaimed in disbelief as he heard her suddenly outburst. "Idiot, you're only making her misery worse!"

Actor clenched her fists. She figured this would be a risky choice, but since Masuko came after her with such a burning passion then she should as well return that feeling with all her might.

" _But… But Pretty Cure is the most phenomenal topic at the moment."_ Shiranee wailed. _"Everyone is looking forward to it. I have to answer their expectation!"_

Everyone's expectation, huh? Excitement and expectation… perhaps if one mixed them together they could turn into a heavy burden. We couldn't enjoy things we love and eventually the burden made us afraid of failing.

"I see… so that's how it is." Actor muttered solemnly. The Cure put her hands at her sides and bowed down for several seconds. "Sorry if I'm being too rough, I know you must have your own circumstance too, but I feel like it was necessary to tell you how I really felt about this. You know what, Senior, I called you annoying and selfish, but I'm probably worse than you. To tell you the truth I got cold feet when I listened to your deduction because it was so spot on. For a moment I thought you really had found out my true identity. Right… that was probably why I desperately tried to counter everything you said. To think again, my words back them might have hurt your feelings and even caused you to end up like this." Actor looked up straight to Shiranee's dull eyes and pictured Masuko's face there. "I guess it just proves how good you're at this, Senior. I'm sure you'll be able to write great news even if it's not about Pretty Cure."

Tvo raised a brow. "How foolish! In the end you're only trying to make her stop chasing after you." He scorned.

"I won't deny that." Actor said with a straight face. "I can't just say empty lies like _oh yes, you are welcome to spread news about my secret and turn my life upside down_ , right? It won't bring any good to either of us. Also, there should be other interesting topics she can cover."

The red haired man snorted. "Didn't you hear what she said earlier? People are expecting news about Pretty Cure's secret and they won't be satisfied until they get it!"

"Well, about that… Rather than me there's still something more worthy to cover and will actually be helpful for humanity… for example: _INFINITY, WHO ARE THEY AND WHAT THEY ARE AFTER!"_ Actor pointed at Tvo.

Shiranee's eyes suddenly gleams when it heard Actor's line and turned at Tvo.

"What? What are you looking at- No, don't come over here!" Tvo shouted out as the monster suddenly got up and slowly walked toward him. "LISTEN TO MY ORDER YOU PIECE OF - NO, STOP!" Instead of obeying the order, Shiranee began to chase after him and even tried to use its broken lens to petrify him.

"I don't need a broken trash that won't obey my order!" Tvo got vexed with it and decided to retreat. He shot a hateful glare toward Actor before he teleported away.

Actor sighed then chuckled. "On second thought, it might be pretty dangerous so maybe it's not really a good idea. Well, whatever it is, everyone will surely love your articles." She reached out her hand toward Shiranee and said softly. "There's no need to worry, okay, Senior?"

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and focused her power. The surrounding air soothed as she chanted her purifying attack. **"Precure… Dramatic Synchronize!"** Light engulfed Shiranee; the monster shrunk and changed back into its original human form. The destroyed school ground around them and the petrified students turned back to their normal state. A small, firefly-like sparkle then left Masuko's body and quietly flew into Actor's CureVice.

"Actor!" A familiar voice called out. The said girl turned around as Pixel flew into her chest.

"Pixel! Oh, thanks God you're alright!" She said in relief as she hugged him.

Pixel puffed up his chest proudly and giggled. "Hehe. I knew you can do it. I always believe in you!"

"Really, you…" She smiled wryly.

A slight movement then caught their eyes and they saw Masuko had started waking up. The latter sat up quietly and looked around in a daze.

"Huh? What happened?" Masuko mumbled. She couldn't recall how she got there and why she had been lying on the ground. The sight of other students and teachers collapsing around her only made her more confused.

Actor and Pixel exchanged look. Now that Masuko had woken up, it was high time for them to leave. "There was a monster attack just now, but it's all over. It should be alright now; the others should be waking up in a few minutes." She explained briefly, then turned on her heels and started walking away. "Farewell then."

Masuko stared blankly at Actor's back for a moment then widened her eyes as it suddenly came to her that the girl before her was _the_ Pretty Cure. "WAIT!" She exclaimed, reaching out toward Actor. "I have tons of questions for you, Ms. Pretty Cure! Who are you and what are you fighting for? Where did those monsters come from?"

Actor halted and looked over her shoulder. She glanced at Masuko who was still sitting on the ground, then raised her index finger to her lips, forming _shh…_ gesture and replied quietly. "No comment."

Masuko was at a loss of words after hearing the short reply. She clutched her chest as she watched Actor disappearing from her sight.

She should be feeling down for missing her only chance to interview the Cure, but somehow it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would have been.

 _Why was that?_

It was probably because something new had sparked in her heart.

* * *

It had been several days since that incident. So far Reina hadn't heard anything from Masuko herself. The _talk_ they had during the purification should have affected Masuko's heart in some way, but there was no telling whether the latter would drop the investigation about the Pretty Cure or not. She also noticed that Aya had been regularly visiting the newspaper club, but only God would know what those two were up to.

Reina fiddled with her phone as she leaned over one of the windows along the school hallway. She sighed as refresh the main page of school's microsite.

"You should have just asked Aya about it." Pixel's voice rang through the earphones as his avatar popped out on the screen. He sat at the corner of the page and read through last week's articles on bulletin board. "It's a lot easier and you wouldn't need to waste so much time waiting for a new article to come out."

"If possible I want to stay away from that club as much as possible. It would be bad if Aya mistook my intention and thought that I was interested in it." Reina replied.

"Geez, you're just too stubborn." Pixel muttered softly as he shook his head. He knew that the real reason was probably because she was just too shy to ask and couldn't find the right moment to bring it up casually. "Anyway, let's just hope Masuko Misa won't put herself in any more danger." He added.

Reina stared at the phone screen. According to the schedule, the bulletin board should be updated any time.

Any time now…

…

 _ **PING!**_

A new notification popped out, indicating that the board had just been updated.

Both Reina and Pixel quickly opened the freshly published article. The headline was about the recent monster attacks around the school. Well, that was to be expected remembering how Infinity had attacked the students several times within a single months. There had been talks about that here and there and it was no way the newspaper club would not cover about it.

Reina gulped as she proceeded to read the content. The article was surprisingly compact and to the point. It summarized up three incidents that had happened at the school. The identity of the perpetrators was still unknown and it was still a mystery how they were able to turn people into monsters. The names of the victims were classified, but it was stated that they were safe and uninjured. Despite the monsters' rampage, the school building miraculously suffered no damage from it and the class would run normally. It was also mentioned that there was a mysterious person called Pretty Cure who helped defeating the monsters, but there was no further information written about her.

"That's it?" Reina said in disbelief.

"There are also some interviews with the teachers and headmaster regarding the incidents but mostly they're only talking about students' safety." Pixel said as he scrolled down the page. "Well, isn't this good? Your secret should be safe now."

"I guess you're right." Reina exhaled. She felt relieved now; it was as if a weight had been lift from her back. Now she could continue living her life and fight as Pretty Cure without having to worry Masuko would be hiding behind the bushes recording her fight.

"Wait, there's something at the bottom." Pixel noticed that there was a link attached at the very bottom of the articles. "It says _'If you want to know more or have any information regarding the recent attacks in the town, please visit_ _here_ _._ ' What is this? A method to collect information?" The fairy tilted his head and clicked the link. The link led them to a new, separated page from the school site.

"What is it? The newspaper club's blog?" Reina asked curiously. She then widened her eyes when she read the blog's title:

 **[PRETTY CURE SUPPORT CLUB]**

"What? What is this?"

"It is exactly what it says!"

A new person suddenly stood behind Reina, almost giving the girl a mini heart attack. Reina jumped in surprised and hurriedly turned around.

"S- Senior Masuko?" Reina was flabbergasted to find the familiar face.

The said girl smiled widely, then suddenly snatched Reina's hand and dragged her to the clubroom on the third floor. Masuko closed the door behind them and pushed Reina to sit next to Aya, who apparently had been waiting for their arrival in the clubroom. Masuko then walked across the room and stood next to the PC. The Pretty Cure Support Club Homepage was shown on the screen.

"Well then, where should I start?" Masuko said cheerfully as she clapped her hands.

Reina deadpanned. "What exactly is going-"

"Yes, yes, about the Pretty Cure Support Club," Masuko placed her hand on the top of the monitor. "It'll be a great place where _everyone_ can post news about Pretty Cure sighting. It covers not only around the school but also the whole town! With this, _everyone_ will know about her."

Reina furrowed her brows. Her head started throbbing hearing Masuko's explanation. Let alone dropping the Pretty Cure topic, that girl's obsession toward it actually got worse.

"Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm trying to pry into her life." Masuko added, much to Reina's surprised. Reina looked up and noticed how Masuko's expression somehow softened. Masuko then continued. "I've been thinking about this lately. Pretty Cure is indeed an enigma. I just can't help wanting to know more about her; who she is and what she is fighting for. However, I figured that I was wrong. Say, even if I'm able to find out about it, will it actually do any good? It's not like it'll help us solving the problem regarding the monster attacks. If any, it might end up causing trouble for her. She's been fighting for us so I think I shouldn't do something that would bring her down. Instead, I should use whatever I got to help her!"

"… and that's this blog?" Reina inquired.

Masuko placed her hand on her chest. "I'm excelled at gathering information. From my experience as a reporter, I've learnt that vast knowledge can become strength too. With everyone's contribution, we're not only able to spread the news to keep people well informed regarding the incidents around the town, we might even able to pick up clues about the enemies. We might not be able to fight like a Pretty Cure, but with this, at least we can still help for her in her fight against the enemy of humanity."

Aya then spoke up. "I share Senior's sentiment. Um, I don't know if I can be any help or but I'll try my best! I've always felt like I'm lacking of something and that was probably why I was attacked some time ago. I want to change and I feel like I might be able to become stronger if I'm able to do this."

"That's the spirit!" Masuko praised.

Reina listened to the two girls in amazement. She looked down and said softly. "…I see. I guess it's not a bad thing."

"I'm glad you understand!" Masuko beamed. She then walked around Reina and placed her hands on the latter's shoulders. "Really, I might make it sound easy but it actually requires a lot of work and needs _everyone's contribution_ to realize."

Reina warily raised an eyebrow. "What are you implying-"

"Therefore I'd like to request your assistance in this!" Masuko tightened her grasps; her hands felt like a hawk's talon clutching strongly onto its prey. "I heard from Inuma you've been running a pretty successful blog by yourself, Usami. It's such a nice coincidence that we're in need of a good moderator for our site."

"That's…" Reina grimaced and turned at Aya.

"I'm truly sorry! It just kinda slipped out." Aya hurriedly apologized as she put her hands together in front of her face. "Uh, oh, but I'd be really reassuring to have you around… Uh, I'm sorry; I guess it's just too much to ask."

"Now, now… I've also researched a bit about you, Usami Reina. You are not part of any club or committee and it's not like you are engaged in any activity outside school. You ought to have a lot of free time to spare." Masuko added as her grips became even harder. Reina couldn't see her face but she definitely had this scary wide smile plastered on her face.

Reina scowled. Behind her was this pushover senior with strong talons digging into her shoulders; before her was a puppy-like girl with a pair of teary eyes that attacked her with strong guilt. These two are way deadlier than any monsters she had faced before. Putting up any fight against these two would be meaningless.

"Fine…" Reina sighed in defeat.

"Really?" Aya beamed. "Thank you, Reina! Let's do our best!"

Masuko grinned ear to ear. She released Reina and hit the latter on the back. "I'm counting on you, new member!"

Reina looked away wearily. Just what kind of situation she had gotten herself into?

* * *

 **TFW you just wanna go home and sleep...**

 **Small quiz! De-de-de-den! How many times had Reina sighed in this chapter?**

 **Last but not least, thank you for reading. I hope you like it. How was Cure Actor's adventure this time? What do you think of Masuko and the club? Please rate and review! Concrits and correction are always welcome!**

 **See you!**


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